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Learn About the Iditarod Race and Dog Mushing in Alaska
By Diane Gray
In Alaska, the official state sport is dog sled racing. Alaskans have always appreciated the reliability and historic value of the old ways of dog sledding. Mechanical transportation such as snow machines and snow mobiles are of course very important to the people of Alaska, but many still keep their own dog teams. Some folks like to keep 2 to 10 sled dogs simply for the joy of recreational mushing, while other keep their teams for working and sled racing competition.
The celebration of Alaskan dog sled racing and mushing racing ranges from the local club meets to the world championships. These races are held throughout the winter months. The mushing races use teams of 7-16 dogs. The teams are not allowed to replace any dog during the race and the cumulative times for the heats determine the winner. Speed races are normally run for about 12-30 miles and last about two to three days. Much excitement accompanies these events. Long distance races are probably the most famous ones of all. They include the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod.
These dog teams and their mushers not only compete against the other teams, but they also have to contend with the harsh elements of the Alaskan countryside. Sometimes a musher and his dog team can find themselves in the middle of a dangerous snow storm. If this happen, winning the race may take a backseat and survival in turn becomes a priority. It is reported in the past races that some mushers would sacrifice their chances of winning to help out a fellow musher and his dogs that unfortunately got stranded in the killer storm and needed help. There are other perils along the trail however. Moose will attack the dogs, and straying off course can both become problems. Also, an illness of the musher or his dogs is possible, and the sheer exhaustion and physical exertion of the race can certainly take its toll.
Of all the dog sled races, the Iditarod race probably gets the most national press and is the most known by Americans and people from all over the world. It follows the old mail route which started in Knik, just north of Anchorage and continued northwest to finish in Nome. This old mail route was blazed in 1910. The modern Iditarod race runs about 1,100 miles and crosses two mountain ranges. It also follows the Yukon River for about 150 miles and runs through several villages. The trail even crosses the pack ice on Norton Sound! As you can imagine, this race is truly a test of physical and mental strength and determination! With all of the obstacles that a musher and his dogs must face and overcome, you can imagine the thrill and excitement of the winner and all of the other teams who ran and/or finished this historic race!One of the most famous runs of all on this old mail trail took place in 1925 when Leonhard Seppala and his dog team brought thousands of precious units of the life-saving Diphtheria serum to Nome, Alaska where an epidemic broke out. Nowadays, snowmobiles and helicopters replace the dog sled for this job, but at that time, the brash and brave lifesaving run by Seppala was a godsend to the distressed people of Nome.
The Iditarod race was conceived and organized in 1967 by Joe Redington Sr. and Dorothy Page of Wasilla, Alaska. The first races only covered 56 miles, but then in 1973 it was lengthened to today's 1,100 miles. In 1973, the Iditarod race started in Anchorage on March 3rd. It ended on April 3rd in Nome. This race has been run every year since then. Several years later, Congress designated the Iditarod race as a National Historic Trail in 1976. Dog mushing and the Iditarod race in Alaska bring a romantic notion in people's minds about the old ways of survival and transportation in the far north. It is reassuring to know that dog mushers and their wonderful and brave dog teams are still running the trails today. The special reminder of this tradition is the Iditarod race, which forged its own place in American history. For information on training your dog, you can visit http://www.sitandheel.com
Hi,
My name is Diane Gray and I have been raising, breeding, showing and training dogs for over 20 years. I sure have learned a lot about them during this time! I consider training to be a very important element in raising your canine pal. A good training program can change your dog from a "pet" to a lifelong companion. The rewards that you and your dog will reap from training will be boundless!
Please visit my blog at http://especiallycanine.blogspot.com for more information and fun facts about our canine pals.
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2 comments:
Iditarod dogs are simply not the invincible animals race officials portray. Here's a short list of what happens to the dogs during the race: death, paralysis, frostbite of the penis and scrotum, bleeding ulcers, broken bones, pneumonia, torn muscles and tendons, diarrhea, vomiting, hypothermia, fur loss, broken teeth, viral diseases, torn footpads, ruptured discs, sprains, anemia and lung damage.
At least 136 dogs have died in the Iditarod. There is no official count of dog deaths available for the race's early years. In "WinterDance: the Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod," a nonfiction book, Gary Paulsen describes witnessing an Iditarod musher brutally kicking a dog to death during the race. He wrote, "All the time he was kicking the dog. Not with the imprecision of anger, the kicks, not kicks to match his rage but aimed, clinical vicious kicks. Kicks meant to hurt deeply, to cause serious injury. Kicks meant to kill."
Causes of death have also included strangulation in towlines, internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury, heart failure, and pneumonia. "Sudden death" and "external myopathy," a fatal condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during extreme or prolonged exercise, have also occurred. The 1976 Iditarod winner, Jerry Riley, was accused of striking his dog with a snow hook (a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In 1996, one of Rick Swenson's dogs died while he mushed his team through waist-deep water and ice. The Iditarod Trail Committee banned both mushers from the race but later reinstated them. In many states these incidents would be considered animal cruelty. Swenson is now on the Iditarod Board of Directors.
In the 2001 Iditarod, a sick dog was sent to a prison to be cared for by inmates and received no veterinary care. He was chained up in the cold and died. Another dog died by suffocating on his own vomit.
No one knows how many dogs die in training or after the race each year.
On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it across the finish line. According to a report published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, of those who do cross, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who finish the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.
Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over 40 years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into submission:
"They've had the hell beaten out of them." "You don't just whisper into their ears, ‘OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the devil.' They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying." -USA Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column
Beatings and whippings are common. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "I heard one highly respected [sled dog] driver once state that "‘Alaskans like the kind of dog they can beat on.'" "Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective." "It is a common training device in use among dog mushers...A whip is a very humane training tool."
Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted dogs, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged or clubbed to death. "On-going cruelty is the law of many dog lots. Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses....." wrote Alaskan Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper (March, 2000).
Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today, "He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight. Skinning them to make mittens. Or dragging them to their death."
The Iditarod, with its history of abuse, could not be legally held in many states, including Michigan, because doing so would violate animal cruelty laws. Michigan's law says that "An owner, possessor or person having the charge or custody of an animal shall not do any of the following: (b) Cruelly drive, work, or beat an animal...."
Iditarod administrators promote the race as a commemoration of sled dogs saving the children of Nome by bringing diphtheria serum from Anchorage in 1925. However, the co-founder of the Iditarod, Dorothy Page, said the race was not established to honor the sled drivers and dogs who carried the serum. In fact, 600 miles of this serum run was done by train and the other half was done by dogs running in relays, with no dog running over 100 miles. This isn't anything like the Iditarod.
The race has led to the proliferation of horrific dog kennels in which the dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have over 100 dogs and some have as many as 200. It is standard for the dogs to spend their entire lives outside tethered to metal chains that can be as short as four feet long. In 1997 the United States Department of Agriculture determined that the tethering of dogs was inhumane and not in the animals' best interests. The chaining of dogs as a primary means of enclosure is prohibited in all cases where federal law applies. A dog who is permanently tethered is forced to urinate and defecate where he sleeps, which conflicts with his natural instinct to eliminate away from his living area.
Iditarod dogs are prisoners of abuse.
Margery Glickman
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org
These comments are very negative.
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