Home Page
Action Alerts
Articles
Campaigns
Events
How Can I Help?
Letters
Press Releases
Who We Are
Links

We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Animal Defenders of Westchester
P.O. Box 205
Yonkers, NY 10704

Campaigns
Stop Dog Racing

Ex-Iditarod Racer Guilty of Animal Abuse

Published in NY Newsday, 4/7/05:

By Associated Press

April 7, 2005, 6:24 PM EDT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A three-time Iditarod musher has been found guilty of   animal cruelty after officers found some of his dogs dehydrated and so emaciated  that their spines and hip bones showed.

A judge fined David Straub $300 on Wednesday for violating  Matanuska-Susitna Borough code. The borough north of Anchorage already had  withdrawn the license that allowed him to keep more than four dogs.

Animal control officers seized 28 of David Straub's 32 dogs in October from   his property after receiving complaints. One dog died at a shelter in November of illness; surviving dogs were adopted out.

Any musher found guilty of cruel or inhumane treatment of an animal is suspended from the Iditarod and must wait five years before seeking  reinstatement, race spokesman Chas St. George said Thursday.

Four-time Iditarod champion Martin Buser testified he saw the dogs at the shelter after Straub asked him for help.

"I was appalled," Buser said. "It does not take a few days of not feeding   your animals to look like that. It takes many months of neglect."

Friends said Straub tried to care for his dogs, but had money problems.

After the verdict, Straub vowed to rebuild his kennel.

Straub finished the Iditarod for the first time in 2002, when he received   the Red Lantern prize awarded to last-place finishers.

Copyright � 2005, The  Associated Press

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR : [email protected]  

NEWSDAY Letters to the Editor Newsday 80-02 Kew Gardens Rd. Kew Gardens, NY   11415-1154      
Fax: 718-793-6422

SOURCE:

www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-brf-musher-convicted,0,6366653.story  

---

Fair Use Notice: This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.