PETA Statement: Hundreds of Dogs Won’t Cross the Iditarod Finish Line

For Immediate Release:
March 13, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in response to Peter Kaiser winning the 2019 Iditarod this morning:

Hundreds of dogs (including six from Peter Kaiser’s team) were so sick, exhausted, or injured that they were pulled from the race, forcing the ones remaining to work even harder, struggling on in what is a grueling test—not of human endurance but of a dog’s ability to survive extreme cruelty. Shaynee Traska’s dogs were so injured that she had to bail from the race, and Nicholas Petit’s simply refused to go any farther. As the Iditarod draws to a close, PETA makes the point that the mushers’ prize money comes at the expense of exhausted dogs’ broken bones, bruised paws, and bloody ulcers and says that the race must end.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” and we oppose speciesism, which is a supremacist worldview. More information about our campaign against the Iditarod is available on PETA’s website.