Rights Group Reveals Iditarod Dog Cruelties

What happens to the dogs during the Iditarod includes death, paralysis, frostbite of the penis and scrotum, bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons, and sprains. Sled dogs don’t want to run when they are sick, tired or in are pain.

Dog beatings and whippings are common. During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "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..."

The Iditarod gave Ramy Brooks a slap on the hand by only banning him for two years. 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.

Veterinary care is poor. During the race, veterinarians do not give the dogs physical exams at every checkpoint. Mushers speed through many checkpoints, so the dogs get the briefest visual checks, if that. Instead of pulling sick dogs from the race, veterinarians frequently give them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them running. In 2007, the veterinary staff gave its Humanitarian Award to Ed Iten, a musher who raced his dogs for four days even though all of them had diarrhea. One of Iten's dogs died in the 2008 Iditarod.

Mushers sit or lie down on their sleds and sometimes sleep while the dogs run mile after grueling mile. Dogs do all the work but get no benefit from running in the Iditarod. In sharp contrast, mushers get book royalties, advertising contracts and speaker fees.

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 run 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.

Iditarod dog kennels are puppy mills. Mushers breed large numbers of dogs and routinely kill unwanted ones, 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, drowned or clubbed to death.

The cruelty and pure cold-heartedness of the Iditarod is astounding.

By Sled Dog Action Coalition, www.helpsleddogs.org