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Sled dogs are shocked and whipped Published in the
ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS WWW.ADN.COM
Letters to the editor, 3/28/06: 'Mushers have used electric shock, whips to make sled dogs run faster'
When dogs won't run, Craig Medred thinks "there is nothing a musher can
do but feed them, rest them, console them and hope for the best" ("Despite
strong start, Currier's Iditarod hopes stopped in dog's tracks," March 18).
But mushers have used force to make dogs run and make them run faster. Here
are some examples: Iditarod winner Joe Runyan wrote in "Winning Strategies for Distance
Mushers" (1997) that he gave slackers blasts from electrical shockers. Musher Jim Welch said in "The Speed Mushing Manual" (1989) that a whip is
"an effective and humane training tool for sled dogs." He described his
technique for whipping dogs: "Without saying 'whoa' you plant the hook, run
up the side 'Fido' is on, grab the back of his harness, pull back enough so
that there is slack in the tug line, say 'Fido, get up' immediately rapping
his hind end with the whip." In "Iditarod Classics" (1992), former Anchorage Daily News sports editor
Lew Freedman quoted Iditarod winner Dick Mackey as saying, "As we came up
over the sea wall onto Front Street, I reached in my sled bag and pulled out
a whip just as he glanced around and saw it. So he reached in and pulled out
his. And that's the way we came down the street, just driving those dogs for
all there was in us." Cruel and cold-hearted treatment of dogs is reprehensible. Margery Glickman, director Fair Use Notice: This document may contain
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