Animals In Print
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Join the compassion parade to help stop cruelty to our fellow beings. 
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From The Sled Dog Action Coalition http://www.helpsleddogs.org

Brutal dog-torture continues at the hands of hardhearted Iditarod mushers. Please help the dogs who are forced to run in the Iditarod dog sled race by sending protest emails to race sponsors and promoters. The Iditarod has a long documented history of dog deaths, illnesses and injuries. On average, 54% of the dogs who start the race do not even make it across the finish line. Of those that do, 81% have lung damage.

Many dogs who are permanently injured in the Iditarod or who are unwanted for any other reason are shot in 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.

Below is a list of organizations that are 2004 Iditarod race sponsors, musher sponsors or Iditarod promoters. Emails are first given in block form and then individually under the sample letter. Please blind copy the email addresses:

julie_roehm@daimlerchrysler.com, ir.dcx@daimlerchrysler.com, dunn@na.ko.com, NewsOutback@OUTBACK.com,
marketing@mill-cop.com, investorrelations@wellsfargo.com, investors@kroger.com, media@carnival.com, rames@carnival.com, invest@chevrontexaco.com, jbeyersdorfer@smurfit.com, enterprise.comments@exxonmobil.com, dave.dunnewald@coors.com, obrown@b-f.com, ptalamantes@mcclatchy.com, chendricks@mcclatchy.com, wccinfo@wcclp.com,  MButler@providence.org, SFVSA@providence.org, Customer.Service@cabelas.com, info@comtec.com, sales@AvidID.com, sales@gitsat.com, mstewart@marthastewart.com,
investor_relations@scholastic.com, info@baincap.com, dawn.mccall@discovery.com, pandit.wright@discovery.com, teachersource@pbs.org, viewer@pbs.org, Customer.Service@EF.com,  newsmedia@elderhostel.org, registration@elderhostel.org, editors@fodors.com, polson@randomhouse.com, gunter.thielen@bertelsmann.de, 
ecousens@wiley.com, wpesce@wiley.com, tony.wheeler@lonelyplanet.com.au, talk2us@lonelyplanet.com.au, atpfeedback@avalonpub.com, hunterp@bellsouth.net, dm@douglas-mcintyre.com, jsisk@rowmanlittlefield.com, msft@microsoft.com, rrt@wagged.com, agilmour@ford.com, john.devine@gm.com,
tricon.investor@tricon-yum.com, nationalaccounts@amerigas.com, IRglobal@goldprospectors.org,  mail@northernoutfitters.com, service@bookmobile.com, discoverywww@iquest.net, joyce@udelhoveninternational.com,  annie@phcp.com, myer@phcp.com, asc_mkt@americanseafoods.com,  bonnie_ingraham@mcs.k12.in.us, info@annamaet.com, jdc@eaglepack.com,  info@breg.com, rambler@cariboucreekgold.com, info@dogbooties.com,  info@coldspotfeeds.com, international@grabberwarmers.com,  info@blackwoodpetfood.com, info@batteries.com, caninecaviar@caninecaviar.com, redpaw@cheqnet.net,  JBbradley@benton.k12.wi.us, neisgar2@benton.k12.wi.us, pointmanl@tds.net, manager@lowes.com, rlhaynes@adelphia.net, teast@zcs.k12.in.us,  microair@microair.com, ktreinen@hse.k12.in.us, stvhr@stvincent.org,  phillip.bayt@icemiller.com, phillip.genetos@icemiller.com, art.kalleres@icemiller.com, Sheila.David@monroe.k12.wi.us,  pxjones@comcast.net, chyahwest@aol.com, gear@downwindsports.com,  info@isisforwomen.com, site.operator@mars.com,  AskMMs@MMMars.com, MMsWorld@mms.com, ethel.us@effem.com, info@ncshc.com,  golpheneeb@rainier.wednet.edu,  bergeson@ospi.wednet.edu, bhorsey@aol.com, yukonwind@earthlink.net, info@shege.web66.com, lodgepol@mc.net,  cfuelling@zcs.k12.in.us, gene@menzies.com, gene@motosolutions.com,  richard.vorick@nacs.k12.in.us,  jrautenberg@stvincent.org, cconner@nwshelby.k12.in.us, sheila.schaeffer@nacs.k12.in.us, pbschool@psci.net, sweber@surf-ici.com,  crestview@msdlt.k12.in.us, sgraves@mcsc.k12.in.us,  robert_lumpkins@cargill.com, districtadministration@lionsclubs.org,  dccl@dccl.org, fenleyann@mhasd.k12.wi.us, springdl@chorus.net,  geraldb@argyle.k12.wi.us, KellyB@argyle.k12.wi.us, bschmidt@d158.k12.il.us,  info@huskyrescue.org, vicepresident@bayareasiberian.org, treasurer@bayareasiberian.org, zvezda@ispwest.com, leb7282@attbi.com,  pikelegal@aol.com, prairiedogsupply@mts.net, sales@edmundoptics.com, sales@yummychummies.com, contactus@melanzana.com, smokey@melanzana.com, richard.edwards@polarisind.com, inv-rel@gargoylesinc.com, office@gfwco.com, business@affinity-petcare.com, marie-pierre.grenier@recreation.bombardier.com, steve.cowing@recreation.bombardier.com, marcr.lacroix@recreation.bombardier.com, genevieve.dion@recreation.bombardier.com, petfood@telusplanet.net,  rfix@redrobin.com, relations@redrobin.com, info@adfinc.com,  info@nationaldogfood.com , michael.moe@thinkequity.com, dquazzo@thinkequity.com, chayssen@thinkequity.com,
bkirkpatrick@stanthony.k12.mn.us, windigo@cheqnet.net

PLEASE PERSONALIZE SAMPLE LETTER (If you will be boycotting, please say so.):

Dear

I understand your organization sponsors or promotes the Iditarod dog sled race, and I want to bring some facts to your attention. This race is condemned by animal protection groups and animal lovers across the United States. Please stop supporting this abusive race, and all of the evils associated with it.

Mushers treat their dogs abominably. In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150 miles, which is the approximate distance between Los Angeles and Seattle, over a grueling terrain in 8 to 15 days. Dog deaths and injuries are common in the race. USA Today sports columnist Jon Saraceno called the Iditarod "a travesty of grueling proportions" and "Ihurtadog." Fox sportscaster Jim Rome called it "I-killed-a-dog." Orlando Sentinel sports columnist George Diaz said the race is "a barbaric ritual" and "an illegal sweatshop for dogs." USA Today business columnist Bruce Horovitz said the race is a "public-relations minefield."

Please visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website  http://www.helpsleddogs.org and be sure to read the quotes on http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm . All the material on the site is true and verifiable.

At least 120 dogs have died in the Iditarod. There is no official count of dog deaths available for the race's early years. Causes of death have 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.

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.

On average, 54% of the dogs who start the race do not even make it across the finish line. Of those that finish, 81% have lung damage.

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."

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 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 unhappy prisoners with no chance of parole. Please end your organization's association with the Iditarod dog sled race.

Sincerely,

2004 IDITAROD SPONSORS

Daimler Chrysler
Email: julie_roehm@daimlerchrysler.com, ir.dcx@daimlerchrysler.com

Coca-Cola
Email: jdunn@na.ko.com

Outback Steakhouse
Email NewsOutback@OUTBACK.com

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels
Email: marketing@mill-cop.com

Wells Fargo & Company
Email:investorrelations@wellsfargo.com

Kroger Co. (Fred Meyer Stores)
Email: investors@kroger.com

Carnival Corporation (Holland America Line)
Email: media@carnival.com, rames@carnival.com

ChevronTexaco Corportation
Email: invest@chevrontexaco.com

Exxon Mobil Corporation
Email: enterprise.comments@exxonmobil.com

Coors Brewing Company
Email: dave.dunnewald@coors.com

Brown-Forman Corp. (Jack Daniels)
Email:obrown@b-f.com

Mc Clatchy Company (Anchorage Daily News)
Email: ptalamantes@mcclatchy.com, chendricks@mcclatchy.com

Mars
Email: site.operator@mars.com

Providence Health System
Email: MButler@providence.org, SFVSA@providence.org

Cabelas (sporting goods)
Email: Customer.Service@cabelas.com

Comtec Business Systems
Email:info@comtec.com

AVID Microchips
Email: sales@AvidID.com

Global Information Technologies
Email: sales@gitsat.com

2004 IDITAROD RACE PROMOTERS

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.
Email: mstewart@marthastewart.com

Scholastic Corporation
Email: investor_relations@scholastic.com

Bain Capital (Co-owns Houghton Mifflin, a company that promotes the Iditarod to children)
Email: info@baincap.com

Travel Channel (Discovery Networks)
Email: dawn.mccall@discovery.com, pandit.wright@discovery.com

PBS Teacher Source
Email: teachersource@pbs.org, viewer@pbs.org

EF Educational Tours
Email: Customer.Service@EF.com

Elderhostel, Inc.
Email: newsmedia@elderhostel.org, registration@elderhostel.org

Fodor's Travel Publications (Random House, Bertelsmann)
Email: editors@fodors.com, polson@randomhouse.com,  gunter.thielen@bertelsmann.de

Frommer's Guides, For Dummies (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)
Email: ecousens@wiley.com, wpesce@wiley.com

Lonely Planet Publications
Email: tony.wheeler@lonelyplanet.com.au, talk2us@lonelyplanet.com.au

Travel Smart Books (Avalon Travel Publications)
Email: atpfeedback@avalonpub.com

Hunter Travel Guides (Hunter Publishing)
Email: hunterp@bellsouth.net

Greystone Books (Douglas McIntyre Publishing Group)
Email: dm@douglas-mcintyre.com

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Email: jsisk@rowmanlittlefield.com

2004 MUSHER SPONSORS

Microsoft Corporation
Email: msft@microsoft.com, rrt@wagged.com

Ford Motor Company
Email: agilmour@ford.com

General Motors
Email: john.devine@gm.com

Taco Bell/Denali Foods (Franchisor: Yum! Brands, Inc.)
Email: tricon.investor@tricon-yum.com

UGI Corporation (AmeriGas)
Email: nationalaccounts@amerigas.com

Global Outdoors, Inc. (Outdoor Channel)
Email: IRglobal@goldprospectors.org

Northern Outfitters
Email: mail@northernoutfitters.com

Montessori Discovery School
Email:discoverywww@iquest.net

Udelhoven Companies (Udelhoven Oilfield System)
Email: joyce@udelhoveninternational.com

Patrick Henry Creative Promotions
Email: annie@phcp.com, myer@phcp.com

American Seafoods Group
Email: asc_mkt@americanseafoods.com

Manchester Elementary School
Email: bonnie_ingraham@mcs.k12.in.us

Annamaet Petfoods
Email: info@annamaet.com

Eagle Premium Pet Foods/Eagle Pet Products, Inc.
Email: jdc@eaglepack.com

Breg, Inc.
Email: info@breg.com

Caribou Creek Gold Dog Food
Email: rambler@cariboucreekgold.com

Dogbooties.com (a division of Arrowhead Fabric)
Email: info@dogbooties.com

Cold Spot Feeds
Email: info@coldspotfeeds.com

Grabber Performance Group
Email: international@grabberwarmers.com

Blackwood Dog Food (The Blackwood Corporation)
Email: info@blackwoodpetfood.com

Batteries.com
Email: info@batteries.com

Sofast.net
Toll free: 1-877-7-Sofast

Canine Caviar
Email: caninecaviar@caninecaviar.com

Redpaw Feeds
Email: redpaw@cheqnet.net

Benton Elementary
Email: JBbradley@benton.k12.wi.us, neisgar2@benton.k12.wi.us

Wisconsin Vietnam Vets, Chapter 3
Email: pointmanl@tds.net

Lowe's Home Improvement (Lowe's Companies, Inc.)
Email: manager@lowes.com

AdvoCare
Email: rlhaynes@adelphia.net

Eagle Elementary
Email: teast@zcs.k12.in.us

Micro Air, Inc.
Email: microair@microair.com

Durbin Elementary School
Email: ktreinen@hse.k12.in.us

St. Vincent Sports Medicine Center (St Vincent Hospital)
Email: stvhr@stvincent.org

Ice Miller Legal & Business Advisors
Email: phillip.bayt@icemiller.com, phillip.genetos@icemiller.com,
art.kalleres@icemiller.com

Abraham Lincoln Elementary School
Email: Sheila.David@monroe.k12.wi.us

Chesapeake Siberian Husky Club
Email: pxjones@comcast.net, chyahwest@aol.com

Downwind Sports
Email: gear@downwindsports.com

Isis Clothing
Email: info@isisforwomen.com

Masterfoods (Mars, Inc.)
Email: site.operations@mars.com, AskMMs@MMMars.com,
MMsWorld@mms.com, ethel.us@effem.com

Northern California Siberian Husky Club, Inc.
Email: info@ncshc.com

Rainier School District
Email: golpheneeb@rainier.wednet.edu  

Siberian Huskie Club of Greater Detroit
Email: bhorsey@aol.com, yukonwind@earthlink.net

Siberian Husky Club of Greater Chicago
Email: info@shege.web66.com, lodgepol@mc.net

Union Elementary School
Email: cfuelling@zcs.k12.in.us

Fogtech
Email: gene@menzies.com, gene@motosolutions.com

The Hutson School

Hickory Center Elementary School
Email: sheila.schaeffer@nacs.k12.in.us

Frater ("Brother") Joseph F. Rautenberg
Email: jrautenberg@stvincent.org

Triton Elementary School
Email: cconner@nwshelby.k12.in.us

Oak View Elementary School
Email: pam.sees@nacs.k12.in.us

Precious Blood School
Email: pbschool@psci.net

St. Luke Catholic School
Email: sweber@surf-ici.com

Crestview Elementary School
Email: crestview@msdlt.k12.in.us

Neil A. Armstrong Elementary School
Email: sgraves@mcsc.k12.in.us

Cargill Animal Nutrition (Cargill, Incorporated)
Email: robert_lumpkins@cargill.com

Argyle Lions Club (Lions Clubs International)
Email: districtadministration@lionsclubs.org

Dane County Conservation League
Email: dccl@dccl.org

Mt. Horeb Intermediate School
Email: fenleyann@mhasd.k12.wi.us

Springdale Lutheran Church Sunday School
Email: springdl@chorus.net

Argyle Elementary School
Email: geraldb@argyle.k12.wi.us, KellyB@argyle.k12.wi.us

Leggee Elementary School
Email: bschmidt@d158.k12.il.us

Free Spirit Siberian Husky Rescue
Email: info@huskyrescue.org

Bay Area Siberian Husky Club
Email: vicepresident@bayareasiberian.org, treasurer@bayareasiberian.org

Siberian Husky Club of Metropolitan Dallas
Email: zvezda@ispwest.com, leb7282@attbi.com

Pike Legal Group
Email: pikelegal@aol.com

Prairie Dog Supply Co.
Email: prairiedogsupply@mts.net

Edmund Industrial Optics
Email: sales@edmundoptics.com

Yummy Chummies Salmon Treats
Email: sales@yummychummies.com

Melanzana Outdoor Fleece Clothing
Email: contactus@melanzana.com, smokey@melanzana.com

Polaris Industries, Inc. (makes snowmobiles, watercraft, ATVs, utility vehicles)
Email: richard.edwards@polarisind.com

Gargoyle Sun Glasses (Gargoyles, Inc.)
Email: inv-rel@gargoylesinc.com

Groenewold Fur and Wool Company
Email: office@gfwco.com

Affinity Advance Pet Food (Agrolimen)
Email: business@affinity-petcare.com

Ski-Doo Snowmobiles, Bombardier ATVs (Bombardier Recreational Products)
Email: marie-pierre.grenier@recreation.bombardier.com, steve.cowing@recreation.bombardier.com, marcr.lacroix@recreation.bombardier.com, genevieve.dion@recreation.bombardier.com

Champion Pet Food, Ltd.
Email: petfood@telusplanet.net

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc.
Email: rfix@redrobin.com, relations@redrobin.com

American Dehydrated Foods, Inc.
Email: info@adfinc.com

National Dog Food
Email: info@nationaldogfood.com
Think Equity
Email: michael.moe@thinkequity.com, dquazzo@thinkequity.com,
chayssen@thinkequity.com

Wilshire Park Elementary School
bkirkpatrick@stanthony.k12.mn.us

Windigo Outfitters in Iron River
Email: windigo@cheqnet.net

Amaize (Marsland Laboratories)
Email message box: http://www.amaize.com/dealer_inq.htm

Visit: http://www.helpsleddogs.org/sponsors.htm for complete contact information.

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