Alert: CNN claims dogs treated well in barbaric Iditarod

[Guest guest]

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

 

CNN is promoting the barbaric Iditarod dog sled race in an article on its

website. The article ignored all the facts which have caused the Iditarod to

be condemned by animal protection groups and animal lovers, and claimed that

Iditarod rules promote the safe treatment of the dogs.

 

Please educate CNN's president about Iditarod race cruelties, and ask that

CNN's readers and viewers be given the animal protection viewpoint.

 

Email: jim.walton.

 

PLEASE PERSONALIZE SAMPLE LETTER:

 

Dear Mr. Walton:

 

I am outraged that CNN is promoting the barbaric Iditarod dog sled race on

its website and ask that you give your readers and viewers the animal

protection side of the Iditarod story. Contrary to what this article claims,

Iditarod race rules do not promote the safe treatment of dogs. On average,

50% of the dogs who start the race cannot make it across the finish line.

 

Unlike many dog sled races in the United States, the Iditarod does not ban

the use of whips. Iditarod rules do not require vets to give the dogs

physicals at the checkpoints. In fact, many mushers breeze through many of

the checkpoints so that the dogs only get visual checks, if that. The

Iditarod rules do not require sick and injured dogs to be under a vet's care.

Many sick and injured dogs are sent to a prison to be cared for by inmates

and receive no veterinary care. In the 2001 Iditarod, a sick dog was sent to

this prison, was chained up in the cold, and died.

 

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

1,150 miles over a grueling terrain in 8 to14 days, which is the approximate

distance between Atlanta and Portland, Maine. 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 (SDAC) 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.

 

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

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

 

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 concentration-camp-like 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.

 

Please tell your readers and viewers the truth about this abusive race.

 

Sincerely,