State Farm’s one-year sponsorship of the Iditarod has ended. The insurance company severed ties with the deadly race after more than 95,000 PETA supporters contacted executives to urge them to stop sponsoring the event. As thanks, PETA has sent the company a box of vegan chocolates.
THIS is what's wrong with the #Iditarod. No dogs should die for a race. FIVE have died JUST this year. https://t.co/r6ghNpjFOS pic.twitter.com/78Z6VKqBgy
— PETA (@peta) March 17, 2017
State Farm’s announcement comes after five dogs died during just one week of the 2017 Iditarod—and only weeks after Wells Fargo announced an end to its own 29-year sponsorship. More than 150 dogs have died in the race’s history.
Update: FIVE dogs now are dead because of this #Iditarod race. Shilling, a 3 y/o, has just died. It has got to end! https://t.co/PV76cEiYJx pic.twitter.com/CnkjH71zHu
— PETA (@peta) March 16, 2017
As more dogs drop dead on the ice every year, the Iditarod’s dark underbelly is being exposed. PETA applauds State Farm for making the compassionate decision to stop supporting a race that treats sensitive dogs like disposable machines.
Update: Another dog has died during the #Iditarod race, a 2 y/o named Smoke. Dogs deserve better! https://t.co/PV76cEiYJx
— PETA (@peta) March 13, 2017
In its correspondence with State Farm, PETA noted that dogs bred for racing are left chained up in the snow and may be killed when they don’t make the cut. Those used in the Iditarod are forced to race nearly 1,000 miles in under two weeks through biting winds, blinding snowstorms, subzero temperatures, and treacherous ice. Their feet often become bruised and bloodied, and many dogs pull muscles, incur stress fractures, or are afflicted by diarrhea, dehydration, intestinal viruses, and even deadly catastrophic muscle breakdown.
HEARTBREAKING: Not every puppy born is a fast runner. Those who don't make the cut for #Iditarod dogsled races are…
Posted by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) on Monday, March 3, 2014
Like Wells Fargo, Guggenheim Partners also recently confirmed that it no longer sponsors the Iditarod, and many more companies cut ties with the race years ago, including Costco, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Panasonic, Pizza Hut, Rite Aid, and Safeway. PETA is now calling on Millennium Hotels and Resorts and others to stop sponsoring the race.
Watch the award-winning new documentary Sled Dogs by director Fern Levitt, which throws back the curtain on the ugly behind-the-scenes cruelty in the dog-sledding industry and is helping to end this deadly race.
What You Can Do
Even though major brands severed ties with the Iditarod years ago, others continue to sponsor this cruelty, and they need to hear from you. Click the button below to join PETA in urging Millennium Hotels and Resorts to end its sponsorship of this abusive race, in which dogs are run to their deaths.
