Help Sled Dogs
January 2014
[For more, read Cruel Iditarod Training]
Iditarod dogs are beaten into submission.
(click to enlarge)
Contact information for Iditarod sponsors and a sample letter are below.
Target and Fred Meyer ended their support for the Iditarod after they
received many protest emails. But the dogs still need your help. Please send
protest emails to race sponsors: Konica Minolta, Golden Corral, Allworx
(Windstream) and Waste Management. You'll find a sample letter under the
email addresses.
Iditarod mushers beat dogs who won't run, or who don't run fast enough.
Mushers are free to beat their dogs whenever they feel like it. Dogs are
beaten with shovels, bats, chains, two-by-fours or whatever else is handy.
Dr, Jeanne Olson, who has been a veterinarian in Alaska since 1988,
confirmed the brutality used by mushers training dogs for the Iditarod. She
saw dogs with cracked ribs, broken jaws or skulls from mushers using
two-by-fours for punishment. In an article published by the University of
Alaska, Dr. Olson said, "There are mushers out there whose philosophy
is...that if that dog acts up I will hit that dog to the point where it
would rather die than do what it did, 'cause the next time it is gonna
die.'"
Email Addresses and Sample Letter:
Email several Iditarod sponsors:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]
Konica Minolta:
[email protected]
Golden Corral:
[email protected]
Allworx (Windstream):
[email protected],
[email protected]
Waste Management:
[email protected]
Sample letter:
Dear Iditarod Sponsor:
For the dogs, the Iditarod dog sled race is a bottomless pit of suffering.
Please end your organization's support of this event. What happens to the
dogs during the Iditarod includes death, paralysis, frostbite (where it
hurts the most!), bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia,
ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons and
sprains. Over 143 dogs have died in the race, including three who frozen to
death in the brutal cold. For more facts, visit the Sled Dog Action
Coalition website,
http://helpsleddogs.org.
Iditarod mushers beat dogs who won't run, or who don't run fast enough.
Mushers are free to beat their dogs whenever they feel like it. Dogs are
beaten with shovels, bats, chains, two-by-fours or whatever else is handy.
Dr, Jeanne Olson, who has been a veterinarian in Alaska since 1988,
confirmed the brutality used by mushers training dogs for the Iditarod. She
saw dogs with cracked ribs, broken jaws or skulls from mushers using
two-by-fours for punishment. In an article published by the University of
Alaska, Dr. Olson said, "There are mushers out there whose philosophy
is...that if that dog acts up I will hit that dog to the point where it
would rather die than do what it did, 'cause the next time it is gonna
die.'"
Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "Nagging a dog team is
cruel and ineffective...A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all
but is effective." He also said, "It is a common training device in use
among dog mushers..." Jon Saraceno wrote in his 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."
Iditarod dog kennels are puppy mills. Mushers breed many dogs and routinely
kill unwanted ones, including puppies. Mushers have drowned, shot,
bludgeoned and dragged many dogs to death. For example, Iditarod musher Dave
Olesen drowned a litter of newborn puppies. Another musher got rid of
unwanted puppies by tying them in a bag and tossing the bag in a creek.
Mushers even have a saying about not breeding dogs unless they can drown
them: “Those who cannot drown should not breed.”
Veterinary care during the Iditarod is poor. In the 2012 race, one of Lance
Mackey's male dogs ripped out all of his 16 toenails trying to get to a
female who was in heat. This type of broken toenail is extremely painful.
Mackey, a four-time Iditarod winner, said he was too stubborn to leave this
dog at a checkpoint and veterinarians allowed Mackey to continue to race
him. Imagine the agony the dog was forced to endure.
Here's another example: Veterinarians have allowed dogs with kennel cough to
race in the Iditarod even though dogs with this disease should be kept warm
and given lots of rest. Strenuous exercise can cause lung damage, pneumonia
and even death. To make matters worse, kennel cough is a highly contagious
disease that normally lasts from 10 to 21 days.
Please end your organization's association with this horrific race.
Sincerely...
Thank you for everything you do for animals!
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