Animals In Print
The On-Line Newsletter

From 29 January 2002 Issue

Companies sponsoring Iditarod dog sled race brutalities

From The Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org

The brutality continues.  Dogs who are forced to run in the Iditarod dog sled race need your help.  Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod or who are unwanted for any other reason are shot in the head, dragged or clubbed to death.  "Ongoing 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).

The Iditarod is condemned by animal protection groups across the United States.  This race forces dogs to run 1,150 miles, which is the approximate distance between New York City and Orlando, over a grueling terrain in 9 to 14 days.  In "Winter Dance: the Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod," 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."

Below is a list of some of the companies associated with the 2002 Iditarod.  A complete list with contact information is found on http://www.helpsleddogs.org/sponsors.htm.  There is also a sample letter below.  If you will be boycotting a company, please say so in your letter.

Sample letter: found below company contact information

Musher sponsors:

Minnesota Wild NHL Hockey Team
Email: nhl2000@wild.com

H.J. Heinz Company (Nature's Recipe Pet Food)
Email: investor.relations@hjheinz.com

Luxottica (LensCrafters - optical retailers)
Email message box: http://www.luxottica.it/english/contact.html

Choice Hotels (Comfort Inns)
Email: investor_relations@choicehotels.com

Countrywide Credit Industries, Inc. (Countrywide Home Loans)
Email: Eric_Sieracki@countrywide.com

NovaMed Eyecare, Inc. (Hobson - Tasman Eye & Blue Laser Group)
Email: info@novamed.com

Procter & Gamble (Iams)
Email: shareholders.im@pg.com

Columbia Sportswear Company (skiwear, shoes, casual wear)
Email: sbeers@columbia.com

UGI Corporation (AmeriGas)
Email: hr1@amerigas.com

Spiegel, Inc. (Eddie Bauer)
Email: jim_cannataro@spgl.com

Hilton Hotels
Email: brian_kuchar@hilton.com

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (Sheraton Hotels)
Email: mark.ricci@starwoodhotels.com

Christel DeHaan Family Foundation, Inc.
Email: children@christelhouse.org

National Wild Turkey Federation, Inc
Email: dhowlett@nwtf.net

Iditarod race sponsors:

Sears
Email: invrel@sears.com

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

Diageo plc (Brands include: Royal Crown, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Guinness)
Email:investor.rel@diageo.com

Carnival Corporation (Holland America Line)
Email: gcahill@carnivalcorp.com

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

Wells Fargo & Company
Email: investorrelations@wellsfargo.com

Bayer (gives Iditarod free medications)
Email: juergen.beunink.jb@bayer-ag.de

Sample letter for you to personalize:  

Dear

I understand your company is associated with the Iditarod, and I would like to bring some facts to your attention. This race is condemned by animal protection groups 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 over a grueling terrain in 9 to 14 days, which is the approximate distance between Orlando and New York City.  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 to see pictures, and for more information.  Be sure to read the quotes on http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm.  All of the material on the site is true and verifiable.

At least 117 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, 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.

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.

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 concentration-camp-like 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. Because he is close to his own to his own fecal material, a dog can easily catch deadly parasitical diseases by stepping in or sniffing his own waste.

The Alaska SPCA has called for an end to the breeding and culling (killing) of these dogs. Iditarod dogs are unhappy prisoners with no chance of parole.  Please end your company's association with the Iditarod dog sled race.

Sincerely,

Return to Animals in Print 29 Jan 2002 Issue

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