IS THE IDITAROD CRUEL TO DOGS - Page 1

http://www.examiner.com/x-4929-Portland-Dogs-Examiner~y2009m3d22-The-Iditarod-claims-the-lives-of-five-dogs-so-far

ARTICLE WITH LINKS
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/2009/story/723658.html

This summarizes the problem very well. Also note that the musher caught beating his dogs (one of which later died) will be allowed by the Iditarod committee to race again.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/29763491/

Some excerpts:

Dogs dying, and this time it’s not Vick’s fault
By TIM DAHLBERG 


updated 7:54 p.m. CT, Wed., March. 18, 2009

Two dogs died in the name of sport this week, and this time it wasn’t Michael Vick’s fault.

Dizzy and Grasshopper were their names, and they met their demise in the Alaska wilderness as the wind howled, temperatures dropped to 45 degrees below, and their owner began worrying about his own survival.

“I think those two guys probably froze to death in the high winds,” Packer told the Anchorage Daily News. “I didn’t think it possible.”

Barbara Hodges wasn’t in Alaska, either. But the California veterinarian was doing something she thought was more valuable, drafting a letter on behalf of the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association to Iditarod sponsors like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Wells Fargo, asking them to withdraw their support from the race.

Hodges treats dogs and cats for a living, so she’s seen a lot of animal suffering up close. She’s also seen the studies that show sled dogs have abnormal lung changes due to prolonged heavy breathing, gastric ulcers from the stress of racing, and arthritis and other injuries that leave them crippled if they are fortunate to live long.

“We believe that this particular race compromises the health and welfare of the canine participants,” Hodges said. “The race would violate animal cruelty laws against overworking or overdriving dogs in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Of course, Alaska has no such law.”

Alaska isn’t about to get one, either. Short of an entire team of dogs dying, there’s not much that will change the opinion of most Alaskans that the Iditarod is a good thing and that dogs are, well, dogs.

Organizers have become savvy in recent years about how to deal with bleeding hearts when it comes to treatment of the dogs. They employ a team of veterinarians to keep the dogs healthy, give them checkups at key points in the race, and do autopsies for cause of death.

Two years ago, they suspended a top musher who was seen hitting and kicking his dogs after they refused to keep going on a stretch of ice. And just the other day, planes were called in to airlift dogs whose mushers had gotten stuck in the storm that snared Packer.

Still, how many dog deaths are reasonable? How many more must die before the fun is finally sucked out of the sport?

Yes, the race is a tradition, one of the last great tests of endurance for dogs and their masters. There’s something to be said for that, even if the dogs, unlike humans, have no choice about competing.

Unfortunately for Dizzy and Grasshopper, this was one test they couldn’t pas

The race itself is tough, but it is not cruel to dogs properly bred and conditioned for it. What makes it cruel is when a human feels he/she must win at any cost. That is, in my opinion, what drives people in most endeavors to step outside the boundaries of ethical and moral behavior. But, of course, what is ethical to one may be something someone else has never ever given any thought.

 The dogs love doing that work just the same as ANY GSD who likes their work.  K9's die protecting the public, its their job.  Cruel? No. Not one bit, just like the dogs that will die to pull a sled. They love to do it.  

If significantly more dogs die running the iditarod (proportionately to the # of dogs running) than die during other races, than perhaps those conditions of the race thought to be responsible for the excess death should be scaled back.

But that's a mighty big if.

I certainly don't think sleddog racing is cruel.

Not allowing dogs to run is cruel in many circumstances.

Living a life languishing around in a kennel without an opportunity for adventure, movement, trail blazing - that is what people should be asking- "Is it a cruel life?"

Overly risky races exposing dogs to the likelihood of death is not a good thing.

But difficult races with a certain amount of risk (and the equivalents in different breeds) are vital if we don't want dogs to devolve into creatures who are simply meaningless property - creatures in bondage who have no real narrative of their own.

Are there German Shepherds running in the Iditarod? I thought this was a German Shepherd message board (or the portion of the website dedicated to German Shepherds)

(Yes, I know that one of the rules in the Iditarod is that any breed of dog can race that is physically conditioned and able to do so.)

 

As long as the Iditarod or any other dogsled race is ran, there will always be controversy.

Horse30189, this is the German Shepherd part of the message board yes, but I will say.....if I was to go to the Siberian Husky part of the database to seek knowledge or something health related towards my Siberians, ect,  I would be out of luck.  There were two messages on there the last time I checked....one from Oli talking about the database update....the other from a guy who got no response along with I think one stud ad on there.....that was it.  I know this post isn't asking for advice on a different breed, but I do see no problem if someone with another breed......comes on this part of the site seeking advice. As far as this being related to GSDs only, there are quite a few posts that come along not even dog related at all.

I'm officially on the fence on this issue....

It's a sport, not without risks, but it is only as cruel as the musher.

Of course any deaths that happen during the race are going to be pushed into the spotlight because of the inherent publicity. People were very upset about Dale's fatal crash (Nascar), but many people die in automobile accidents every day that did not involve DUI, or a result in death to others. The solo-driver who loses control on a country-road and has a lethal head-on with a tree is not going to garner the same national attention as Dale. Why? It's all about publicity.

Hunting dogs often have fatal accidents. But individual hunts aren't a high-interest thing, so no one's taking count of how many beagles have passed away chasing a rabbit into unsafe conditions, or died of heart-attacks while running a trail. The fact of the matter is, all things have risks. I'm not going to list how many hunting dogs I've known that have run into traffic after quarry, ran into a trapline, been shot by other hunters (accidentally or deliberately), broken their legs, ripped off dew-claws, and had heart-attacks. I grew up in a hunting region. Hunting dogs didn't always live to retire of old-age.

The more mushers and dog-teams compete, the higher the number of casualties, even if the percentages remain the same.

I'd need to see a casualty-per-total-number comparison before I'd be much affected by the "x-number of dogs died this year" bit.

I don't think running dogs is inherently cruel, but like I said, when you've got people who treat the dogs as nothing more than objects to be used then discarded, and they don't have to be a musher to have such an irreverant attitude towards canine life.

THE ALASKAN HUSKY IS NOT A REG BREED. IT IS A WORKING AND RACING DOG. THERE IS NO STANDARD AS THERE IS A LARGE VARIETY FROM KENNEL TO KENNEL. CAN YOU PICK OUT ANY RACERS WITH GSD BLOOD BELOW.

http://www.huskyhomestead.com/Jeff_King_Iditarod_team.htm