For Immediate Release:
February 28, 2023
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Anchorage, Alaska – Armed with signs reading, “Dogs Struck, Kicked, Dragged for the Iditarod,” PETA supporters will rally outside the Mushers Banquet Gala to demand an end to the race and the cruel treatment of dogs who, during the off-season, are kept chained to dilapidated boxes or plastic barrels in the bitter cold, as revealed in PETA’s exposé of well-known Iditarod mushers’ facilities.
Where: Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, at the intersection of F Street and W. Seventh Avenue, Anchorage
When: Thursday, March 2, 5:30 p.m.
Then: At the Iditarod’s Ceremonial Start in downtown Anchorage, PETA “dogs” will stand in coffins that say, “R.I.P.,” and display the name and story of a dog who died during the race. More than 150 dogs have died in the Iditarod since it began, with aspiration pneumonia (caused by inhaling their own vomit) the number one cause of death.
Where: At the intersection of D Street and W. Fourth Avenue, Anchorage
When: Saturday, March 4, 9 a.m.
Finally: PETA supporters will gather at the Iditarod’s restart in Willow, brandishing signs that say, “Iditarod: Stop Racing Dogs to Death!”
Where: Iditarod Restart, Willow Lake
When: Sunday, March 5, 1 p.m.
Meanwhile, PETA ads juxtaposing clips of happy canine companions with footage of lonely, shivering dogs at Iditarod mushers’ dog-sledding operations will run dozens of times on KTUU and KYES through March 15.
“Dogs used and abused in the Iditarod have the same needs as the dogs who share our homes, yet they’re chained up like bicycles, made to suffer in freezing weather, and pushed to race until their bodies break down,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “As the Iditarod begins, PETA will be on hand to ensure that the dogs who have collapsed and died on the trail aren’t forgotten.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
