As Holmes Crosses Finish Line, PETA Confronts Iditarod Sponsors With Videos of Miserable Dogs

For Immediate Release:
March 17, 2026

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

As musher Jessie Holmes becomes the first to finish the 2026 Iditarod just hours after a four-year-old dog named Charley died on the trail, PETA is calling on the Iditarod’s sponsors to cut ties with the race immediately. PETA is sending each sponsor new video footage taken by eyewitnesses showing dogs used in this year’s race panicking; shivering dogs crying and begging to be brought in from the cold; handlers dragging dogs by the neck and shoving them into tiny boxes for transportation; and even a dog with a wound on his side.

“The Iditarod treats dogs like disposable snowmachines, and now it’s celebrating a man notorious for leaving dogs chained up outside and making them haul a heavy metal carriage through neck-deep flood waters,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is challenging this death race’s remaining sponsors to look into the eyes of the dogs who suffer on and off the trail and see the misery they’re paying for.”

So far in this year’s race, more than 150 dogs—including four used by Holmes—have been pulled off the trail, forcing those who remain to work even harder. One dog’s toenail was reportedly broken off while running, causing him to spray blood “everywhere”—and the musher admitted he didn’t notice at first. Multiple dogs on Jason Mackey’s team have developed pneumonia, and expedition musher Thomas Waerner withdrew from the race after several dogs he had forced to run showed signs of kennel cough. Multiple other mushers have admitted that viruses are circulating among dogs, including some who are still being forced to race.

Musher Jaye Foucher dropped out after facing a punishing stretch of trail with winds over 60 miles per hour, markers blown down, and conditions so severe that they battered the dogs and destroyed equipment. Musher Jessie Royer reportedly lost her entire team of dogs three times, blaming a new pair of mittens that made it hard to hold onto the sled and a crash that knocked out her contact lens—yet she still forced the dogs to continue the race. And after invading the home of a bison who was minding their own business, musher Jody Potts-Joseph reportedly tried to fire a gun—which jammed—at the animal, then threw sticks at them.

Major sponsors, including Alaska Airlines, Chrysler, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Jack Daniel’s, and Wells Fargo, have all dropped their support for the race after learning from PETA how dogs suffer and die.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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