THE Sled Dog Action Coalition is asking everyone possible to please help the Iditarod dogs by sending protest emails to race supporters. These dogs are helpless victims of profoundly inhumane treatment and cannot speak for themselves. A list of what happens to them during the Iditarod includes death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers, broken bones, pneumonia, torn muscles and tendons, diarrhoea, vomiting, hypothermia, fur loss, broken teeth, viral diseases, torn footpads, ruptured discs, sprains, anaemia and lung damage.
How do sick animals run the 1100 miles across frozen tundra and through icy waters? Veterinarians give them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them going. Anaemia tires the dogs but mushers force them to run mile after grueling mile. At least 126 dogs have died in the Iditarod and no one knows how many dogs die after this tortuous ordeal or during training.
On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it across the finish line. According to a report published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, of those who do cross, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who finish the Iditarod have ulcers, versus zero percent pre-race.
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. Some are starved to maintain their most advantageous racing weight, or skinned to make mittens, or dragged to their death." (USA Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column).
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, including those who have outlived their usefulness, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged or clubbed to death. 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).
For anyone who would like to write protest letters to the sponsors and promoters, please go to the website and copy the list of email addresses. - Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org
