Help: Iditarod cruelties promoted by National Geographic & General Mills

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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,