Providence Under Fire as Iditarod Punishes Mushers Who Stopped Dogs From Freezing to Death

Locally Based Company Must Cut Ties With Race in Which More Than 150 Dogs Have Died, Says PETA

For Immediate Release:
April 6, 2022

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

The 2022 Iditarod dog-sled race in Alaska has ended in a debacle over officials’ shameful decision to demote and impose fines on mushers who took dogs inside during a potentially fatal storm, and PETA fired off a letter today to Rod Hochman, president and CEO of Providence Health & Services, calling on him to end the healthcare company’s sponsorship of the deadly race.

“No reputable company would want to be associated with an event that actually punishes people for taking action to prevent dogs from freezing to death,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Providence Health & Services to stop propping up this cruel, deeply disturbing race.”

PETA notes that this year’s Iditarod was saturated with chaos and cruelty. Two dogs went missing—one of whom has still not been found and the Iditarod is failing to help search for—a musher was apparently forced out of the race after dogs he used were found in poor condition, and dogs were attacked and one was killed during training before the race even began. Nearly 250 dogs were pulled from the trail due to exhaustion, illness, or injury, leaving the remaining ones to work even harder to pull the mushers.

Just this year, Millennium Hotels and Resorts and Nutanix joined ExxonMobil—a former major sponsor that had paid the race $250,000 a year—as well as Jack Daniel’s, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Alaska Airlines, and 14 other companies that have cut ties with the Iditarod.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.