Iditarod vet says AR activist's claims are nonsense!!!

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Letters to the editor (200 word limit) : letters

 

Call of the Wild

Iditarod vet Charlie Berger is most at

home among the dogs up north

 

Sam Whiting at swhiting

Sunday, February 16, 2003

 

In the dead of night in the dead of an Alaskan winter, Berkeley veterinarian

Charlie Berger likes to stand on the frozen Yukon River.

 

For the past six years Berger, 64, has been a volunteer vet for the Iditarod

Trail Sled Dog race. For the last 12, he's serviced dogs on ultra- marathon

races in Montana, Minnesota, Wyoming and Canada.

 

Where it is cold and wolves howl is where he wants to be. When it comes to

the company of people, he prefers northern hermits, having studied and made

a film about them called " Yukon Journal. "

 

On aptitude for the job.

 

I've always been interested in the far north. I kept and studied wolves and

sled dogs for many years at my home in Vermont.

 

On cold comfort.

 

I have seen windchill factors lower than 100 below zero on the Bering Sea.

The coldest I have witnessed is -52. We're out there wearing six or eight

layers, looking like the Michelin Man.

 

On inspiration.

 

If you look at athleticism, these are the greatest athletes in the whole

animal world. There's no other mammal alive that can run 1,100 or 1,200

miles in nine days, in -40 and survive.

 

On the athletes.

 

They are not what Berkeleyites would picture as big, fluffy sled dogs. They

are a breed known as the Alaskan Husky. They are basically a cross-bred dog

that has a special kind of coat and weighs between 40 and 55 pounds.

 

On understanding sled dogs.

 

What the animal rights activists claim is total nonsense. They claim that

these dogs are brutalized. They claim that people should have no right to

run dogs like this. I get the feeling that most of them think that man and

his constant companion should be couch potatoes and sit there.

 

On the myth of the musher.

 

You cannot force a dog to run. If you get hard on a dog, as they always

picture, a dog crouches and just stays there in total fear. These dogs run

because they have been bred to do so and they get good food rewards during

and after their run.

 

On the pit crew.

 

On this 1,200-mile race there are some 20-odd checkpoints where the musher -

 

the sled dog driver - has to come to. The teams start with 16 dogs. These

dogs are checked with electrocardiograms. We very carefully monitor these

dogs for any kind of abuse. You're checking them often at 2 in the morning

with a headlamp for light. We watch how they are moving and go over each

dog, its cardiovascular system, its feet.

 

On covering the terrain.

 

We have bush pilots who fly us from checkpoint to checkpoint in light

planes. There are times when they are running hundreds of miles on the Yukon

River. You see this from the air. It's quite a spectacular site.

 

On accommodations.

 

We get flown in and stay in a tent on a frozen lake or in a community house

or gymnasium. Some of the check stations are in native villages along the

Yukon River. It's all roadless interior.

 

On the worst he's seen.

 

Death. When you have 1,300 or 1,400 dogs starting on this race, it's not

unusual for one or two to die, and they do.

 

On domestic dogs.

 

The average Berkeley couch potato dog is much too heavy and not in great

condition, like the people. A lot of problems that dogs get as well as

people are due to overfeeding.

 

On smart dogs.

 

You've got to differentiate between smart and trainable. The two don't go

together. A sled dog - brilliant dog, but virtually untrainable. The most

trainable type of dogs are shepherds and border collies. That's not to say

you don't see an Einstein among mutts occasionally.

 

On ending up in a mild climate.

 

The weather bores me in Berkeley. I grew up in the bowels of Brooklyn. I

followed a blonde out here in 1965. I was broke and I said, " For two years

I'm going to have a practice. " I set up Campus Veterinary Clinic, and here I

am 33 or 34 years later.

 

On staying off the couch.

 

I run ecological tours for teenagers and adults, canoe trips to the Arctic,

the Yukon and Alaska. It's called Malamute Tours Limited. If I take

teenagers on a Yukon River trip for 500 miles and I can't keep up with them,

that's sad.

 

On pet psychologists.

 

It's all bull--, quite frankly. People who are passing themselves off as pet

psychologists, psychics, you've got to look at their credentials very

carefully.

 

On the company of hermits.

 

I did a film in the early '80s about people who live in remote areas. We

showed it at film festivals in New York, Munich, Toronto, Paris. It won

great critical acclaim but has yet to earn me five cents.

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/16

/CM84459.DTL

 

E-mail Sam Whiting at swhiting

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