Help: Iditarod cruelties promoted by National Geographic & General Mills

[Guest guest]

PLEASE CROSS POST

 

From the Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org:

 

National Geographic just published an interview on its website with

four time Iditarod dog sled race winner Martin Buser. The interview

is filled with pro-Iditarod propaganda and says nothing about the

race's many cruelties or how it spawns puppy mills in which large

numbers of dogs are bred and culled (killed). On November 20th

National Geographic is hosting a webcast that features Buser. Its

advertisement for the webcast says that " winners of the race are...as

famous as the governor, but more favorably viewed. " This

glorification of the Iditarod is being sponsored by General Mills'

Nature Valley Granola Bars. Please educate National Geographic and

General Mills about the barbarism of the Iditarod. Email addresses

for their CEOs and a sample letter for you to personalize are below.

If you are going to boycott, please say so.

 

EMAIL ADDRESSES: jfahey,stephen.sanger

 

Dear Mr. Fahey and Mr.Sanger:

 

Please remove the interview with Iditarod dog sled race winner Martin

Buser from the National Geographic website and cancel your November

20th webcast interview of Buser which is being sponsored by General

Mills' Nature Valley Granola Bars. This race is condemned by animal

protection groups and animal lovers across the United States. Please

stop promoting the Iditarod and all of the evils associated with it.

 

Mushers treat their dogs abominably. In the Iditarod, dogs are forced

to run 1,150 miles over a grueling terrain in 8 to 14 days, which is

the approximate distance between Orlando and New York City. Dog

deaths and injuries are common in the race. USA Today sports

columnist Jon Saraceno called the Iditarod " a travesty of grueling

proportions " and " Ihurtadog. " Fox sportscaster Jim Rome called it " I-

killed-a-dog. " Orlando Sentinel sports columnist George Diaz said the

race is " a barbaric ritual " and " an illegal sweatshop for dogs. " USA

Today business columnist Bruce Horovitz said the race is a " public-

relations minefield. "

 

Please visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website

http://www.helpsleddogs.org to see pictures, and for more

information. Be sure to read the quotes on

http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm. All of the material on the

site is true and verifiable.

 

At least 119 dogs have died in the Iditarod. There is no official

count of dog deaths available for the race's early years.

In " WinterDance: the Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod, " Gary

Paulsen describes witnessing an Iditarod musher brutally kicking a

dog to death during the race. He wrote, " All the time he was kicking

the dog. Not with the imprecision of anger, the kicks, not kicks to

match his rage but aimed, clinical vicious kicks. Kicks meant to hurt

deeply, to cause serious injury. Kicks meant to kill. "

 

Causes of death have also included strangulation in towlines,

internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury,

heart failure, and pneumonia. " Sudden death " and " external myopathy, "

a fatal condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate

during extreme or prolonged exercise, have also occurred. The 1976

Iditarod winner, Jerry Riley, was accused of striking his dog with a

snow hook (a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In 1996, one of Rick

Swenson's dogs died while he mushed his team through waist-deep water

and ice. The Iditarod Trail Committee banned both mushers from the

race but later reinstated them. In many states these incidents would

be considered animal cruelty. Swenson is now on the Iditarod Board ofs.

 

In the 2001 Iditarod, a sick dog was sent to a prison to be cared for

by inmates and received no veterinary care. He was chained up in the

cold and died. Another dog died by suffocating on his own vomit.

 

Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over

40 years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into submission:

 

" They've had the hell beaten out of them. " " You don't just whisper

into their ears, `OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the

devil.' They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten

into submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The

mushers will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying. " -USA

Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column

 

Beatings and whippings are common. Jim Welch says in his book Speed

Mushing Manual, " I heard one highly respected [sled dog] driver once

state that " `Alaskans like the kind of dog they can beat

on.' " " Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training

device such as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective. " " It is a

common training device in use among dog mushers...A whip is a very

humane training tool. "

 

Mushers believe in " culling " or killing unwanted dogs, including

puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or

who are unwanted for any reason, are killed with a shot to the head,

dragged or clubbed to death. " On-going cruelty is the law of many dog

lots. Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are

dragged to death in harnesses..... " wrote Alaskan Mike Cranford in an

article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper (March, 2000).

 

Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today, " He

[Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like

starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight.

Skinning them to make mittens. Or dragging them to their death. "

 

The race has led to the proliferation of horrific dog kennels in

which the dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have over 100

dogs and some have as many as 200. It is standard for the dogs to

spend their entire lives outside tethered to metal chains that can be

as short as four feet long. In 1997 the United States Department of

Agriculture determined that the tethering of dogs was inhumane and

not in the animals' best interests. The chaining of dogs as a primary

means of enclosure is prohibited in all cases where federal law

applies. A dog who is permanently tethered is forced to urinate and

defecate where he sleeps, which conflicts with his natural instinct

to eliminate away from his living area. Because he is close to his

own to his own fecal material, a dog can easily catch deadly

parasitical diseases by stepping in or sniffing his own waste.

 

Iditarod dogs are unhappy prisoners with no chance of parole. Please

end your Iditarod dog sled race promotion by canceling the webcast.

 

Sincerely,