Simon Property Group Demands to Be Removed From List of Iditarod Sponsors

For Immediate Release:
March 9, 2011

Contacts:
David Perle 757-622-7382

Indianapolis--Following a plea from PETA, Indianapolis-based retail real-estate company Simon Property Group has announced that its Anchorage 5^th Avenue Mall, which leases retail space to the Iditarod, is not a sponsor of the dogsled race—despite such claims on the Iditarod's website. In a letter to PETA, a Simon Property Group representative affirmed, "[T]he Mall does not sponsor or otherwise provide funding to the Iditarod. … We have asked to be removed from the web page."

"Fewer and fewer companies are willing to support a race that forces dogs to run to the point of injury, exhaustion, and death," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "The Iditarod is a nightmare—not only for dogs but also, as it turns out, for corporate public relations."

Many organizations, including the Transportation Security Administration, have pulled their sponsorship after learning about the cruelty inherent in the Iditarod. Since 2005, 20 dogs used in the 1,000-plus-mile race have died. Dogs in the race frequently die from hypothermia, gastric ulcers, or "sled dog myopathy"—literally being run to death. More than half the dogs who start the race don't make it across the finish line.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.