2008 Iditarod Death & Injury Report

[lakotasong]

As usual, this year's Iditarod Trial Sled Dog Race was a truly sad situation for the four-legged competitors.

One musher (Kim Franklin) was involuntarily eliminated from the race. Why? This happened because she lost two of her dogs during the 48 mile run from Rainy Pass to Rohn. She stopped the team for a short period of time and attempted to look for them, but then continued on. She left those two dogs alone in the Alaskan wilderness to fend for themselves while she continued to the next checkpoint, where she was then disqualified for arriving without all of her dogs.

The first death this year occured in the team of John Stetson: a seven-year-old dog named Zaster died on March 8th from aspiration pneumonia. (read more about aspiration pneumonia) + (AVMA note)

The second death this year occurred in the team of Jennifer Freking: a three-year-old dog named Lorne died after being struck by a snowmobile on March 10th - yet Freking continued the race (speaks volumes, doesn't it?).

The third death this year occurred in the team of Ed Iten: a four-year-old male named Cargo died on March 11, between Elim and White Mountain. The reason for Cargo's death is still unknown.

In total, from calculations on the Iditarod's official statistics page, 506 dogs were dropped from this year's Iditarod teams due to becoming injured and/or too ill to continue.

The Iditarod has been over for a bit now, and one can only imagine how many dogs were taken home and shot, bludgeoned, drowned or otherwise disposed of due to their lack of performance in the race. The ones that did survive (is that a blessing or a curse?) are left to live in dilapidated houses, on the end of short chains - many without any bedding or fresh water:

[lakotasong]

A few more photos:


In the above photo, please note the exposed screws and rotted flooring in the house.



Pictured above is a typical barrel house, with no insulation, and a rusted water bucket (that was empty at the time of this photo).



A very arthritic Iditarod dog, forced to lie down on either cold plastic or the rocky ground.

And just a note - all of the photos posted so far in this thread are from a CHAMPION Iditarod musher's kennel... Isn't that lovely?

[calgal]

Looks like they need some good laws to protect dogs from this abuse and neglect. What kind of monsters are able to do these things to dogs and still sleep at night.............as I've said before, I don't think those who do, have souls!

[lakotasong]

Originally Posted by calgal

Looks like they need some good laws to protect dogs from this abuse and neglect.

According to the Alaska Animal Cruelty laws:

This section comprises Alaska's anti-cruelty and animal fighting laws, which were amended in 2004. The section that references the definition of "animal" (Sec. 3. AS 11.81.900(b)) was amended by adding new a paragraph to read: "animal" means a vertebrate living creature not a human being, but does not include fish." The law first sets forth the relevant minimum standards of care. Alaska law also allows a person who believes that cruelty to animals has taken place or is taking place to file a complaint with a public or private animal control agency or organization, the department, or a peace officer. It is a defense to a prosecution under this cruelty section that the conduct of the defendant was part of scientific research governed by accepted standards; constituted the humane destruction of an animal; conformed to accepted veterinary or animal husbandry practices; was necessarily incidental to lawful fishing, hunting or trapping activities; conformed to professionally accepted training and discipline standards. Additionally, this section does not apply to generally accepted dog mushing or pulling contests or practices or rodeos or stock contests.

So there are laws in place (though not very strong laws compared to the rest of the nation), but they specifically exempt sled dogs!!! How SICK and SAD is that?

[rutylr]

This is still a few Mushers.Not all treat there dogs like this.
I know some good people who race their dogs and they treat them great.
All should not be banned from doing what they like with their dogs because of a few.
Same with APBT's and Rottweilers and any other big dog.The good people in dogs out weight the bad,but all people post is the bad.

[lakotasong]

I've been involved in sled dog sports for just over a decade, and I'm sorry to say that the good mushers DO NOT outweigh the bad. Many forms of neglect are perfectly acceptable in the mushing community. I've visited countless kennel operations, numerous races, know literally hundreds of mushers all over the world - and have trained with many of them here in the states. I've been a member of multiple sled dog sport clubs for years.

The sport, as a whole, needs a major overhaul. We need to set higher standards of care for these dogs and introduce the notion of ethics. And before you ask, yes - I am working on it from both a legal and an educational standpoint.