ALERT: CBS Early Show promoting cruel Iditarod dog sled race

[Guest guest]

PLEASE CROSSPOST

 

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

 

Blind musher Rachael Scdoris will be on the Early Show (CBS,Oct. 20)

discussing her preparations for the Iditarod. Dogs die, become sick and injured

even

when mushers are sighted. Scdoris' dogs will face many added risks in this

already tortuous race. Please ask the Early Show to give its viewers the animal

protection perspective on the Iditarod. Contact information and a sample letter

are below.

 

Email: earlyshow,StormH,SmithH,

jchen

 

SAMPLE LETTER TO PERSONALIZE

 

Dear Ms. Chen, Mr. Smith and Ms. Storm:

 

I understand that on October 20, the blind musher Rachel Scdoris will be on

the Early Show to discuss her preparation for the Iditarod. Please give your

viewers a balanced picture by giving equal time to the animal protection side of

the Iditarod story. The Iditarod is condemned for its cruelties by animal

lovers and animal protection organizations across the United States. Scdoris'

dogs will face added risk in what is already a tortuous race.

 

In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150 miles over a grueling terrain

in 8 to 15 days, which is the approximate distance between New York City and

Miami. 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 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. All of the material on the site is true

and verifiable.

 

At least 120 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 of Directors.

 

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.

 

Iditarod dogs are victims of cruelty. Please tell your viewers the truth

about this barbaric race.

 

Sincerely,