Written by PETA
When we discussed the first dog to die during the 2009 Iditarod, I mentioned that more were likely to follow. Now, at the end of the race, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that this year's death toll stands at six.
Six dogs. Dead.
And for what? A belt buckle. A long shot at some money, a pickup truck, and a few endorsement deals. I suppose they think that they're covering themselves in glory, too, but it looks more like blood to me.
Consider this: Two of the dogs may have frozen to death in the punishing weather. Two others died with fluid in their lungs. The most recently reported death apparently happened during a turbulent plane flight after the "musher" gave up. Even the generally Iditarod-supportive Anchorage Daily News called the number of deaths—only five, at the time—"troubling," but that misses the point: Even one dog dead is too many, and it is unacceptable that the dogs who survive are run to exhaustion or injury, only to be stuck back on a chain until the next race.
To paraphrase a classic cartoon, we say it's cruelty, and we say the hell with it. PETA has asked the Alaska State Troopers to open a criminal investigation into the deaths of these dogs in the Iditarod. We'll keep you posted on any major developments. In the meantime, even though this year's event has mercifully ended, it's not too late to tell the 2009 Iditarod sponsors to make this the last year that they contribute to dogs' deaths.
Written by Jeff Mackey
our family had the first husky back in the early 90's, i was six at the time. now living almoust my entirely life whit these dogs and getting to know the breed in these years so well, i'm bit shocked of petas accusations towards dogs used as sleddogs. we are talking about arctic breed, dogs that love cold weather and snow...and also pulling sled! our family lives in finland, lapland near russian border. it gets realy cold here in winter -30C is quite normal temperament for many months in winter. we have 23 dogs, most of them working type siberian huskies, few show type siberians (blue eyes, black/white fur) like most of siberian huskies in us and also few alaskan huskies. anyway, our dogs have free acces to our house through a small "dog door"(which can bee closed if wanted). we have huge yeard that has been fenced everywear, that we can let dogs run freely in our yeard. we also have small stable (turned kennell space) inside that fenced area. when me and my husband are not home, dogs are put to kennell where they can either be inside (where in winter we keep temperament somewhere between +10 to +15C) or outside in smaller fenced areas. all the dogs get to come inside our house when we are home, also in our bedroom and in our kids room. we do make "small safari trips" for tourist so all our dogs work as sleddogs most time of the winter. but first of all, they are family members! they are deeply loved and cared, and are best friends whit our seven yeard old son. who has dogbeds for his "own" dogs in his room, where two of our older dogs sleep most nights. most younger dogs WANT TO SLEEP OUTSIDE at nights, even that they have acces to inside the house. our five year old siberian husky male named uljas never goes inside a doghouse, he hates them. he stays inside the house until we fell a sleep, and then gos outside to sleep in his favorite place, at corner of the old stable (we can see there in bedroom window). so even when these arctic dogs have a chance to be inside the house in warm, most of them prefer to sleep outside, in the cold. and we keep our inside temperament i the house belove +20C 'cause of the dogs, they can't stand the heat! arctic breed that live in colder parts of the world do make batter winter coats and don't feel the cold and can survive in there. so people, don't judge us mushers that we are evil and mistreating dogs and that dogsledding is cruel. these dogs really love snow, cold weather and pulling the sled. and what could be more wonderful than takinf a few days safari trip to mountains whit your best friends...the huskies, knowing they love it as much as you, or even more!
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