AR-News: CBS thinks Iditarod cruelties are fun and romantic

Thu Apr 1 20:28:46 EST 2004

From: SledDogAC at aol.com

PLEASE CROSSPOST

>From the Sled Dog Action Coalition, <A HREF="http://www.helpsleddogs.org/">
http://www.helpsleddogs.org</A> 

Making Iditarod cruelties seem romantic, CBS News Sunday Morning, a national 
TV program, on March 21, said that mushers are "chasing the memory of a time 
when the hearts of men and dogs were the most powerful engines in the land." 
Its website describes the Iditarod as fun, and has a photo of the 2004 Iditarod 
race winner.

Their report did not mention any cruelites that the dogs endure or that two 
dogs died in the 2004 race or that dogs were made to run for 12 hour stretches 
without rest.

Please let CBS know that the Iditarod is a shamless, bloody business by 
emailing the show's executive producer, Rand Morrison and Leslie Moonves, CEO of 
CBS-TV. Sample letter is below email addresses.

Emails: leslie.moonves at tvc.cbs.com, sundays at cbsnews.com

Sample letter to personalize:

Dear Mr. Moonves and Mr. Morrison:

CBS News Sunday Morning on March 21 made the cruelties of the Iditarod seem 
romantic by saying that mushers are "chasing the memory of a time when the 
hearts of men and dogs were the most powerful engines in the land." The show's 
website describes the Iditarod as fun, and has a photo of the 2004 Iditarod race 
winner. The Iditarod is a shamless, bloody business. Please give your viewers 
and website readers the animal protection side of the Iditarod story. 

In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150 miles, which is the approximate 
distance between New York City and Miami, Florida, 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 Coaliton website <A 
HREF="http://www.helpsleddogs.org/">http://www.helpsleddogs.org</A> to see pictures, and for more 
information. Be sure to read the quotes on <A 
HREF="http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm">http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm</A> . All of the material 
on the site is true and verifiable.

At least 122 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. 

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. It is unknown how many dogs 
die in training or after the race.

On average, 54% of the dogs who start the race do not 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. Your viewers 
and readers deserve to know the truth about this cruel race.

Sincerely, 

the wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. he is in front of it - axel munthe

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. 
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."      Margaret Mead
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