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Misinformed web site alert!!


Pumpkin the musher

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:mad: Just on a whim, I typed in "Sled Dogs" in the link search, and lo and behold, here is "Thge Sled Dog Action Coalition". Folks, this site is just plain bull****. This is a site designed to make mushing look cruel and inhumane, and nothing could be farther from the truth. That lead in picture? It's been [u]altered[/u], there is no dog being dragged on the ice. How do I know? Because a friend of mine in Alaska knows the musher that is in that picture, and it was actually a piece of black plastic that was blowing across the ice. These people have used quotes out of context, information from decidedly biased sources, and totally ignored any information that did'nt uphold their ideas. I'm so mad I could spit. I love my dogs with all my heart, and would never make them do anything that would harm them. Yes, there are some bad apples so to speak, but that is the unfortunate reality with most sports and breed enthusiasts. Please, if you go to this site, do so with an open mind, and then check out a site called "Sled Dog Central" . Thanks for letting me rant![/u]

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I don't know much about this sport, but here's my opinion. The dogs I've seen sledding stuff have all been having a ball! That pic doesn't even look like a dog is being drug at all! Just looks like somethings on the ground! (like you said it was)
A quote from the site:
[quote]Jon Saraceno discussed the Iditarod dog sled race in his article "Grueling Iditarod not even fit for dogs," [/quote]
What is it fit for? The dogs have been bred to do this and as I said before, I think they truly enjoy it! I realize there are probably people who do it that just want to win and don't care about their dogs, but that doesn't mean the whole thing is bad!!! :mad: Oh, and all the sports guys quotes on there? Well how different is this than people killing each other in hockey or beating each other up in boxing and stuff? Correct me on any of this that is wrong. I will be back. (after I look at more dumb stuff on this site!)

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People like the ones that run that site would rather see the dogs bought by people who want them for pets, then not be able to handle them, and chain the dog(s) out, than have the dogs fullfill their original purpose. Then they wonder why there are so many in shelters, etc... if the dogs had been doing what they were "made" to do, they wouldn't have been so bored, or considered too prey driven (at least not too prey driven for their situation), or too hyper.

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yellowlabs:
That "cage" that the web site refers to is called a "dog box". What it is is simply a topper that fits on the back of a pickup truck. All it is used for is to transport the dogs from the mushers' home to the race. Sometimes the box is mounted on a trailer, but the dimensions are fairly standard. My box is made to fit on my Chevy S-10 pickup, and can carry 6 dogs- Each dog has its own box, mine are about 2 feet by 3 feet, and high enough for the dog to stand up in. I usually put the dog box on in late November, and the dogs erupt in howling and barking as soon as I take it out of the garage because they know what the box on the truck means! Each one remembers what box they were in the year before and I usually have to hold them back so they don't scratch up my truck or get hurt trying to get in on their own. :D

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  • 1 month later...

I have copied the information below from the PETA web-site. Regardless of your feelings for PETA (and I support them) please note that the information is a compilation of remarks from many others. I think racing your dogs for fun is fine...but that is not what the Iditarod is.

Hundreds of dogs are abused and exploited every year in Alaskas Iditarod dog-sled race;a 1,150-mile trek over grueling terrain. Todays race is completely devoid of similarities to the original Iditarod, the intent of which was to deliver an emergency supply of diphtheria serum. Participants have one goal in mind;acquiring the cash prize;and will do almost anything to attain it.


Greg Cote, sports columnist for The Miami Herald, wrote last March about the Iditarod;The bizarre competition involves 65 ;mushers,drivers along for the ride as their slaves;16 dogs teams, at least at the start;do the hard labor, at times encouraged by their masters; whips; He calls the race ;a grotesque shame masquerading as sport; and explains that the abuse of the dogs constitutes a violation of cruelty-to-animals statutes across the United States.

USA Today sports columnist Jon Saraceno, who refers to the Iditarod as ;Ihurtadog; has called it an embarrassment, an outrage, and a travesty of grueling proportions. In an article published during the 2001 race, Saraceno wrote, Its really shameful marketing carried out on the backs of defenseless animals .Injury and death are Iditarod partners.

Fox sportscaster Jim Rome has termed the Iditarod the ;I-killed-a-dog sled raceand pointed out in an article following the completion of last years race that two dogs died during the race and several others were removed from the race because of injuries, including a group mangled by a snow-making machine.

George Diaz, sports columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, said of the Iditarod in a March 2000 article, “Although the fluff coverage in the Anchorage Daily News promotes the Iditarod as Alaskas great race,it is nothing more than a barbaric ritual that gives Alaskan cowboys a license to kill.

In an article entitled Iditarods bone of contention repels some marketersBruce Horowitz of USA Today calls the Iditarod a public relations minefield.

Typically, dogs are forced to run in the race for four- to five-hour stretches with little rest in between. They are subjected to biting winds, blinding snowstorms, subzero temperatures, and falls through treacherous ice into frigid waters. Virtually every year, several dogs die of sudden death syndrome,the dogs are literally run to death.

The death toll over the years has surpassed 100. In last year's race, one dog had his neck broken after he became entangled in a gang line. Another dog died during surgery to attempt to repair a suspected stomach ulcer; the dog collapsed during the race, vomiting several liters of blood. Studies have indicated that there is a high incidence of ulcer-related illnesses and deaths because of the frequent use of anti-inflammatory drugs employed to mask injuries to allow the dogs to run farther and faster.

Reuters Health recently reported on an article that appeared in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, which detailed a study of airway passage disease in dogs who had recently completed the Iditarod,81 percent of the dogs studied had abnormal accumulations of mucus or debris that results in injury and inflammation.

Besides these obvious cruelties, dogs behind the scenes also suffer. Not every puppy is born a fast runner, and those who do not make the grade are usually killed by bludgeoning or drowning for not possessing monumental stamina and speed. Manuals and articles written by top mushers blatantly recommend killing dogs who do not measure up. One musher equates it weeding a garden .Almost invariably, those who are left after the cull live their entire lives in cramped and substandard kennels that, oftentimes, are not inspected by any regulatory agency. Many kennel operators keep their dogs tethered on short ropes or chains or crammed into tiny confined spaces.

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Pumkin

Just a couple of points:

1. Please don't take the remarks about the Iditarod as aimed at you! I am sure the vast majority of mushers love the sport, love their dogs and are totally responsible....HOWEVER...it does not appear that the Iditarod is something any true musher or dog lover should support. It is taking a fun thing and twisting it to something that is deadly.

2. I do believe you are wrong about the media...yes some are biased...but there is a difference between a bias (which we all have) and a lie. Bias may cause you to pick and choose the facts you report..but a fact is still a fact...and the facts from the Iditarod are horrific. There are too many people, from too many reputable sources to just dismiss their comments as not true. The worse thing,IMHO, that true mushers like yourself can do is to ignore or dismiss what is being said. I urge you to be a voice to find out what is really happening and change it...the Iditarod does nothing but blacken the sport in the eyes of the public.

3. The idea of a big and well-known race is great...but would it not be better if it were shaped into something where dogs are not hurt and killed.

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I realize that the comments are not directed at me- I agree that not everyone who is a musher takes good care of their dogs- but there is not a [u]single[/u] musher entered into the Iditarod who does not take impeccable care of their dogs. How do I know this? Because I've gone through vet checks at races in the lower 48 from vets who also work the Iditarod; and they are tough. Really tough. Secondly, you can't just go sign up for the Iditarod- you have to run at least three qualifying races to prove that your dogs are capable of doing that kind of mileage. These dogs are born to do this- and of course not every genetic or underlying problem can be seen- especially heart defects that may become lethal under stress or a disorder called sled dog myopothy which is probably the reason most dogs die under stress. BTW, this also happens to sheep trial dogs, hunting trial dogs and SAR dogs. The comment from Newbie that mushers simply shoot unwanted dogs is pure hogwash- any Iditarod musher can sell all the puppies they produce to mushers both competitive or not.
My final point is this- if I chose to neglect, underfeed, or socially repress my sled dogs, or any mushers' sled dogs they [i]would not pull[/i]. It's that simple. You cannot make a dog pull- either the whole team pulls, or they don't. People don't finish the qualifiers with neglected or abused dogs. The simple fact that the sled dog action coallition resorted to using a doctored photo to prove it's "point" is evidence for me that they are completely mis-informed.

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As I have said before- I personally know the musher in the picture, and the object reportedly a dog being dragged is in fact a piece of black plastic that was blowing across the ice. The dog next to the "dragged dog "would also show obvious signs of distress as it would being pulling the "dragged dog" with it's neck line. Most of the writers listed :Orlando? Miami? Yeah. Real hotbeds of mushing. As far as what they do in Florida, I'm against the fact that everytime a poor helpless 10 foot alligator rips the arm off someone or eats some toddler off of a playgraound they immediately kill it. The sports writers in Florida should sweep their own doorsteps before they start writing about something they know nothing about. As for my opinion of PETA? You don't want to know.

p.s There are no anti-inflammatories allowed, in any dog race that I'm familiar with. There is a very simple blood test that is performed on each dog in the Iditarod. Not bias. Fact.

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:( The picture may or may not be bogus. Lets say it is...and lets say that there are those who will use unfair tactics to win their way. Now...with all that said...that does not make all the negatives about the Iditarod false.

You do not have to be from Alaska to write a story if you do your home work and are fair. For example...are the stories about the Columbia all written by astronauts....if a story is done about murder...is the reporter a murderer?

As for PETA, yes they are smash-mouth and in-your-face...but I have also found them truthful.

Most movements had the same label when they began...civil rights, anti-war etc. Sadly....it is the 30 second sound bite that gets attention.

I have found them very helpful in helping gain prosecution on some of the more horrific animal torture cases...and one from personal experience.

Pumkin...as I said before...I am sure mushing is a sound and responsible sport....but based on my research..the Iditarod is not. Attacks on the Iditarod are not attacks on mushers as a group.

The best way to change minds is not through stating that the "other" side are misrepresenting or lying. If the Iditarod is truly a safe and humane race...then you should be able to support your arguments with facts from articles countering what I have posted.

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I've got to say I'm inclined to go with what Pumpkin says on this rather than believe things published by PETA or the Sled Dog Action Coalition.

These people don't seem to have any first hand experience with what they are protesting; they just try to get knee jerk reactions from animal lovers.

Here is a link to the site of the all Alaskan Malamute team that was planning to run this year

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:( I think we miss the point when we condem an argument because we do not like PETA. The articles I posted were NOT written,paid for or influenced by PETA...look again at who they are from. Here is some more information from the Humane Society of the United States. (and note the facts this time from an Alaska paper) Do the actions noted below sound like those of a caring owner?

Facts About the Iditarod


What is the Iditarod?
Every March in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, dozens of dog-and-musher teams race approximately 1,150 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nome, Alaska, in pursuit of hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money. The race route is roughly equal to the distance between Los Angeles and Denver, or from New York City to Memphis, a distance that the teams typically run in nine to 14 days. The current speed record, set in 2002, is eight days, 22 hours, and 46 minutes, less than half the time it took to run the first Iditarod race in 1973.

Produced by the not-for-profit Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC) and sponsored by a host of mostly Alaska-based businesses, the event is promoted as a commemoration of Alaskan culture and heritage. The race is also considered a salute to an approximately 600-mile, non-competitive mushing run that brought life-saving diphtheria serum to Nome in 1925. This historic run comprised relay teams, most of which traveled less than 100 miles.

Today's Iditarod, however, is an international media event featuring mushers from several countries, many of whom compete in races and breed sled dogs for their livelihood. With the annual cost of putting together a competitive Iditarod team estimated at up to $60,000, very few native Alaskans are able to participate. Using high-tech equipment and backed by corporate donations, Iditarod mushers tout themselves as sports heroes while forcing their dogs to participate in a race that has witnessed dog deaths and injuries nearly every year since its inception.

Is the event inhumane for the dogs involved?

The race forces the dogs to run too far and too fast in frequently grueling trail and weather conditions, and it exacts a severe, and sometimes fatal, toll on dogs' physical and psychological systems. While the ITC has made some reforms in recent years—such as reducing the maximum size of dog teams from 20 to 16 for better musher control—race organizers continue to mass-market the race and hype the competition among mushers who are continually attempting to break speed records.

The HSUS opposes the Iditarod in its current form—or any other mushing event in which heavy emphasis is placed on competition and entertainment and in which dog deaths and injuries are regular consequences. The HSUS is not opposed to non-competitive mushing or competitive mushing events in which the welfare of dogs is not sacrificed for the sake of entertainment.

How many dogs have died in the Iditarod?

In most of the 29 Iditarod races, at least one dog death has occurred. The first race is reported to have resulted in the deaths of 15 to 19 dogs. In 1997, the Anchorage Daily News reported that "at least 107 [dogs] have died" over the history of the event. Since then more deaths have occurred—five dog deaths in 1997, one in 1998-2000, two in 2001, and one in 2002—bringing the grand total of dogs who have died in the Iditarod to around 118. There is no official count of dog deaths available for the race's early years, making any dog death tally only an estimate.

In 1999, musher Jeremy Gebauer's five-year-old dog, Rodman, died after running 650 miles in the race. In 1998, Trim, a five-year-old sled dog in the team of musher Linda Joy, collapsed and died after more than 1,000 miles on the trail, while two other dogs, ages seven and one-and-a-half, collapsed during the race and died after its conclusion. Race rules allow mushers to continue "unless it's determined the death could have been avoided," according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Causes of death during the last decade have included strangulation in towlines, internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury from collision, heart failure, and pneumonia. "Sudden death" and "exertional myopathy," a condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during extreme or prolonged exercise, have also been blamed.

Noted by the Anchorage Daily News as the musher who "led the transformation of the Iditarod from a leisurely 16-day race to a 10-day hotly contested event," five-time Iditarod winner Rick Swenson was disqualified from the 1996 race after a dog died while he mushed his team through waist-deep overflow, a combination of water and frozen slush pooled on the surface of a frozen river. In 1985, a musher was disqualified after he kicked his dog and the animal died. The 1975 winner, Jerry Riley, was banned for life in 1990 after being accused of striking a dog with a snow hook.

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I don't think we are missing the point. We are not saying that we are pro Iditarod because we don't like or agree with PETA. Not agreeing with PETA seems to just be a side comment.

The thing is, I have never been to the race, you have never been to the race and Margery Glickman (who is the main protester) has never been to the race. Until we have, none of us can say with 100% certainty that we are right.

My point is that these people so vehemently protest something they know nothing about nor have any person experience with. This is why I tend to lean towards believing people like Pumpkin and others who have personal experience with sled dog racing. All the "facts" you have posted seem horrible but I believe they are distorted and are not a true representation of the race.

BTW did you look at any of the links I posted? They really are a good read.

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[quote name='sixjollydogs']As for PETA, yes they are smash-mouth and in-your-face...but I have also found them truthful.[/quote]

Truthful huh? How about when they trivialize the death of millions of people by comparing victims of the Holocaust to cows and chickens? They are absolutely repugnant: [url]http://www.masskilling.com/exhibit.html[/url] (Caution: graphic pictures)
I won't even address the absurdity of the claim that farmers starve their cattle before market - yeah, that's profitable! :roll:

And how about the Got Beer? and Jesus was a vegetarian campaigns? Losts of "truth" to those too. They also compared the woman murdered in Canada to slaughtered pigs: [url]http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/11/13/peta021113[/url]

Yeah, I despise them and hope people will see how vile they are. :evil:

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