The Iditarod and animal cruelty

The Iditarod a dog sled race that covers 1,150 miles of Alaskan mountains and frozen rivers was won this year by Lance Mackey. The race, which lasts between 12 and 17 days (depending on each musher) is considered by some as inhumane. Because 54% of the dogs who start the race do not finish, due to injury, illness or even death, many feel as though the race itself and the year long training is too strenuous on the dogs.

Three of the dogs died last year, bringing the total number of dog deaths in the history of the Iditarod to 120. Although thorough investigations proved that the dogs were not abused, the harsh conditions of the so-called “Last Great Race” must have paid a toll. “I think that the dogs are suffering because I could not walk 1,150 miles,” said Albany High Junior Anja Lutz. “And I would die if I ran it.”

However, many Alaska residents feel that the Iditarod is an Alaska tradition. Drawing people from all over, restaurants, hotels and other businesses that line Willow/Anchorage (the start of the race) and Nome (the finish line) must make huge profits during this time of the year. The corporations that sponsor the big-time mushers make big bucks offering rides to those willing to pay an average of $1 thousand during the Iditarod parade (which takes place the day before the Iditarod start date).

Some feel that the money aspect of the race has taken away from the beauty of it and potentially leads to the inhumanity of it all. When asked how the Iditarod could be changed to benefit the dogs, Lutz responded, “They should take out the corporate aspect of it because I think that it encourages mushers to overwork their dogs. It also takes out the element of fun and it becomes all about winning.”

But for some the race has historical value. In 1925 the disease diphtheria struck Nome, Alaska. Serum, a medicine that was needed to treat the disease was located in Nenana Alaska, 674 miles away. Twenty different dog teams transported the medicine in a remarkable time of 27.5 hours. This led to the love of dog mushing as well as to the start of the Iditarod.

Those who are overwhelmed by the historical context or the nature that surrounds the competition are oblivious to any kind of abuse that the dogs take on. “I don’t think that the dogs exactly volunteer for it,” said an Albany High student who wishes to remain anonymous. “There are vets along the race route so it can’t be inhumane.”

13 Responses

1. 1:48 PM on March 19th, 2008Margery Glickman:

   The Iditarod is terribly cruel to dogs. For the facts, visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website, http://www.helpsleddogs.org.

   Here’s a short list of what happens to the dogs during the Iditarod: death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons, vomiting, hypothermia, sprains, fur loss, broken teeth, torn footpads and anemia.

   At least 136 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,” a nonfiction book, 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.

   No one knows how many dogs die in training or after the race each year.

   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.” -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.”

   During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Brooks admitted to hitting his dogs with a wooden trail marker when they refused to run. The Iditarod Trail Committee suspended Brooks for two years, but only for the actions he admitted. By ignoring eyewitness accounts, the Iditarod encouraged animal abuse. When mushers know that eyewitness accounts will be disregarded, they are more likely to hurt their dogs and lie about it later.

   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 Iditarod, with its history of abuse, could not be legally held in many states, because doing so would violate animal cruelty laws.

   Iditarod administrators promote the race as a commemoration of sled dogs saving the children of Nome by bringing diphtheria serum from Anchorage in 1925. However, the co-founder of the Iditarod, Dorothy Page, said the race was not established to honor the sled drivers and dogs who carried the serum. In fact, 600 miles of this serum delivery was done by train and the other half was done by dogs running in relays, with no dog running over 100 miles. This isn’t anything like the Iditarod.

   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 prisoners of abuse.

   Sincerely,
   Margery Glickman
   Director
   Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org

2. 6:51 AM on March 21st, 2008DERTY DAN:

   The first albany high quote from anja is really stupid.

3. 11:28 AM on March 25th, 2008Marc:

   Agreed.

4. 2:00 PM on March 28th, 2008_bella:

   Well, ‘DERTY DAN,’ I think your mom is really stupid.

5. 3:01 AM on April 14th, 2008Meredith:

   I just felt like saying…the Iditarod is not as cruel as some people think. Of the dogs that get dropped only a very small percentage of them are actually injured. The smarter mushers take bigger slower dogs to go over the mountains, then they drop them on the other side of Rainey Pass because they are too slow. Would you rather that the mushers made sixk or injured dogs complete the race rather than sending them to a prison where the dogs get pampered?? I hae volunteered and followed the race for about 11 years and this year I had the priveledge of being at the Start, Re-Start, and Finish and to watch some of the teams come in you would have thoguh that they had just run 20 miles instead of over 1100.

6. 7:47 AM on April 14th, 2008DERTY DAN:

   Bella, since when did they computers in the kitchen?

7. 12:59 PM on April 14th, 2008Anonymous:

   If the dogs thought they were being treated unfairly, then they would rebel against their human masters and rip them to pieces! Seriously, people! Use logic!

8. 2:51 PM on April 15th, 2008Sarah:

   I totally agree with you guys! The Iditarod is not (!) dog cruelty!!!!!! if dogs could talk they’d say: shut up and let me do what i love; run the iditarod! the mushers LOVE their dogs! You guys are SO cruel if you dont’ let htem!

9. 2:53 PM on April 15th, 2008Jackie:

   exactly sarah!

10. 10:33 AM on April 22nd, 2008_bella:

    someone isn’t getting a sandwich.

11. 2:07 PM on May 6th, 2008cool dudw:

    i love anja

12. 8:37 PM on May 7th, 2008Anonymous:

    poor doggies

13. 10:34 AM on August 29th, 2008relatives in Alaska:

    I’ve been to the iditarod and I disagree with this article, the dogs are taken care of better than many people are in the bay area. plus there are way stations along the track with vets, like you said. from my point of view the only potential danger is really the conditions which aren’t all that bad considering the equipment, these dogs are trained and exhaustion isn’t an issue (anja)

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