This factsheet was completed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)  . Please direct any questions or comments to PETA directly at 757-622-7382 or info@peta.org.

Sled Dog Racing: Death on the Trails

Imagine “racing your dog from Orlando to New York, depriving him of sleep to complete the course as quickly possible, mushing though waist-deep water and ice, with the dog losing about 10 pounds through the ordeal.”(1) Or consider tethering yourself “to 15 other runners on a 50-foot gangline while pulling 400 pounds. Imagine flipping on your back and being dragged down an icy incline.”(2) That’s how two sports columnists have described the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a grueling expedition from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, which kicks off every March. It’s only one of several such races in which mushers, or dog-sled drivers, compete for thousands of dollars and other prizes. Meanwhile, the dogs, viewed as little more than snowmobiles with fur, are lucky if they finish the race alive or without serious injuries.

The Most Notorious of Races
About 1,500 dogs start the Iditarod, but more than one-third are flown out every year because they become sick, injured, or exhausted from being forced to run for hours through jagged mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, and desolate tundra in biting winds, blinding snowstorms, and temperature fluctuations from 40 degrees above to 60 degrees below zero.(3,4) The dogs, usually husky mixes weighing only 40 to 45 pounds, are usually tethered to 15 other runners and 400-pound sleds. They must run about 125 miles per day, often racing as many as six hours at a time, with just a few hours’ sleep each day.(5,6) The race can take nine to 14 days.(7)

The dogs’ feet become bruised and bloodied, cut by ice, and just plain worn out from the tremendous stretch of ground that they cover. Many pull muscles, incur stress fractures, or become sick with intestinal viruses or bleeding stomach ulcers. In his capacity as a volunteer veterinarian for the race, Scott Moore “saw dogs with torn Achilles tendons, dehydration, diarrhea, hypothermia, hyperthermia, inflammation in the wrists and soreness in shoulders from the harnesses.”(8)

Orlando Sentinel columnist George Diaz wrote that the Iditarod “is nothing more than a barbaric ritual that gives Alaskan cowboys a license to kill.”(9) At least one or two dogs die every year and the causes range from strangulation in towlines to internal hemorrhaging to being trampled by moose or suffering from liver injuries, heart failure, and pneumonia. Wolf, a 5-year old dog in musher Lance Mackey’s team, died when he regurgitated food and choked on it.(10) Takk, a 7-year-old dog on musher Kjetil Backen’s team, died of blood loss associated with gastric ulcers.(11) It has been estimated that the Iditarod death rate is 2.9 fatalities for every 1,000 competitors; if the Boston Marathon suffered deaths at the same rate, 290 human runners would have died during the 1990s.(12) At least 120 dogs have died during the Iditarod since 1973, and that does not include dogs who died after the race.(13)

Even if dogs survive a race, they may die afterwards. Dr. Paula Kislak, president of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, has stated, “With a buildup of lactic acid and other chemicals from muscle degradation as a result of extreme exercise, toxicity in the liver and kidneys may not cause death for days or weeks after a race.”(14) A study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found that of the 59 dogs’ airways 24 to 48 hours after a race, 81 percent had “abnormal accumulations” of mucous or cellular debris in their lower airways. Further, the lung damage was classified as moderate to severe in nearly half of the dogs.(15)

There are other grueling and deadly although not as well-publicized endurance races, including the Flambeau International Sled Dog Classic, the Copper Basin 300, Sky Sled Dog Race, and the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

Suffering Behind the Scenes
Thousands of dogs are bred to run in sled races, but not every puppy is born a fast runner. Those who do not make the grade are “culled.” Some culled dogs are sold or given away, but many are euthanized, abandoned, shot, bludgeoned, or drowned.

Frank Winkler, a two-time Iditarod racer, was charged with 14 counts of cruelty to animals after an animal control officer found a crate of dead and dying puppies in a truck. Winkler, who claimed he couldn’t afford to take the animals to a veterinarian to be euthanized, allegedly bludgeoned the puppies with the blunt end of an ax. According to court documents, Winkler said that he shot some of the dogs and was just following advice from fellow mushers.(16) Musher Lorraine Temple justified shooting dogs in a 1999 interview by saying, “They can’t keep a dog who’s a mile an hour too slow.”(17) 

Most dogs live in cramped kennels that are usually not inspected by any regulatory agency. Kennel operators often keep dogs tethered on short ropes or chains or confined to tiny spaces. Margery Glickman, a retired elementary-school teacher who founded the nonprofit Sled Dog Action Coalition (SDAC), was vacationing in Alaska and happened upon a “dog farm,” where more than 200 animals were being raised to race in the Iditarod. “I found the conditions horrific,” Glickman told The Miami Herald. “The dogs live tethered permanently on these short leashes.”(18) More than 60 “neglected underweight dogs … kept in an area strewn with feces,” were found at the Klondike Dreams kennel, which offered dog-sled rides to tourists.(19) Nearly 30 malnourished sled dogs were seized from David Straub, who has run the Iditarod three times. Straub was charged with 17 counts of cruelty to animals and the dogs were confiscated.(20)

At the largest tourist dog sledding operation in the U.S., Krabloonik Kennel in Aspen, Colorado, as many as 35 dogs have been killed annually by a gunshot to the head, according to a former employee.(21) Krabloonik’s manager defended the killings, saying, “[Culling dates] back hundreds of years. This is nothing new .… This is part of the circle of life for the dog-sled dog.”(22)

Profiting From Pain and Misery
Like any other tourist attraction, the motive of the Iditarod and similar races is money. USA Today sportswriter Jon Saraceno, who dubbed the race the “Ihurtadog,” reported, “The economic impact to Anchorage, site of the ceremonial star, is estimated at more than $5 million .… The dogs, of course, get their usual take. More suffering.”(23) Hartford Courant sports columnist Jeff Jacoby concurs that the Iditarod is nothing more than “shameful marketing carried out on the backs of defenseless animals.”(24)

Sponsors of the Iditarod have included Cabela’s, Wells Fargo, GCI, Anchorage Chrysler Dodge, ABC Alaska’s Superstation, Anchorage Daily News, Chevron, FredMeyer, Millennium Alaskan Hotel, and PenAir.

What You Can Do
Do not patronize the Iditarod or other sled dog races or tourist attractions that include dog-sled rides. If you are planning a trip to Alaska, be sure to let your travel agent know that you do not want any packages that include dog sled rides. Let sponsors of sled dog races know you don’t support businesses that support such cruelty. Over the years, companies like Nestlé, Rite Aid, Irridium World Communications, Safeway, Maxwell House Brand, True Value Hardware, BP Amoco, Sherwin-Williams, Upjohn, Tropicana, Pizza Hut, Costco, and Pfizer Pharmacia have canceled their sponsorship after hearing from people opposed to the races that they sponsored.

Support human sled races! Lowell, Massachusetts, for instance, hosts the National Human Dogsled Championships in February as part of its annual WinterFest, in which dozens of teams of humans dress up in crazy costumes and race for the finish line.(25) In New York City, the “Idiotarod” features some 500 human racers pushing shopping carts from over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan.(26)

References

1) George Diaz, “Iditarod Dog Deaths Unjustifiable,” Orlando Sentinel, 5 Mar. 2000.
2) Jon Saraceno, “Grueling Iditarod Not Even Fit for Dogs,” USA Today, 3 Mar. 1999.
3) Mike Brassfield, “Sledding in the Sunshine,” St. Petersburg Times, 5 Jan. 2003.
4) Judy Chia Hui Hsu, “Everything Turns to Mush,” Seattle Times, 5 Jan. 2005.
5) Judy and Richard Schiller, “Sled Dogs and Mushers,” Crooked Creek Observer, 11 Feb, 1997.
6) Chia Hui Hsu.
7) Brassfield.
8) Jami Badershall, “Cody Veterinarian Gets Kick out of Iditarod,” Cody Enterprise, 26 Mar. 2004.
9) Diaz.
10) Joel Gay and Craig Medred, “Leader’s Dog Dies on Trail,” Anchorage Daily News, 15 Mar. 2004.
11) Iditarod XXXII Advisory, 14 Mar. 2004.
12) Saraceno, “Grueling Iditarod Not Even Fit For Dogs.”
13) Saraceno, “As Death Toll of Dogs Rises, So Does Iditarod’s Insanity,” USA Today, 14 Mar. 2004.
14) “Victims of Cold, Fatigue and Greed,” The Press Democrat, 20 Mar. 2004.
15) M.S. Davis et al., “Racing Alaskan Sled Dogs as a Model of ‘Ski Asthma,’” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 6(2002): 878-82.
16) Julia Rubin, “The ‘Ugly Side’ of Dog Racing; Alaskan Mushers Weed Out Canines That Don’t Make the Team,” The Washington Post, 29 Nov. 1991.
17) Diaz.
18) D, “Iditarod, Hailed As Greatest Dog Race? Call It Grotesque Shame, Animal Abuse,” The Miami Herald, 5 Mar. 2002. 
19) “Homes Found for Most Dogs Removed From Squalid Kennel,” Associated Press, 6 May 1999.
20) Heidi Loranger, “Starving Dogs Recovering at Shelter,” KTVA 11, 20 Oct. 2004.
21) “Killing Techniques Being Questioned at Dog Sledding Operation Near Aspen,” Associated Press, 5 Apr. 2005.
22) Chad Abraham, “Krabloonik Defends Culling of Pack. Long-Term Employee: ‘We’re All Dog Owners Here,’” The Aspen Times, 5 Apr. 2005.
23) Saraceno, “As Death Toll of Dogs Rises, So Does Iditarod’s Insanity.”
24) Saraceno, “Iditarod No More Than Dog Abuse,” USA Today, 5 Mar. 2001.
25) Walter Roessing, “Lowell Race Is Doggone Funny,” The Boston Herald, 27 Jan. 2005.
26) Valerie Fuchs, “Madness, Sabotage and a Cart Race Across NYC,” Washington Square News, 31 Jan. 2005.