Here are some more reports about the way sled dogs are created in Alaska, and the problems that creates. I have not used any documentation from PETA at all. The web is just full of reports about the Iditarod and all the kinds of abuse of dogs that come from it. It is hard to imagine that anyone could know about how much the sled dogs suffer and still condone this "custom."
helpsleddogs.org
Abuse in Iditarod kennels
What the Alaska SPCA says
Permanent chaining of dogs is cruel, dangerous and makes dogs aggressive
Killing or culling unwanted dogs
Some culled Iditarod dogs are skinned for fur
Mushers charged with animal cruelty and reckless neglect
Untold story of dog care costs
What the Alaska SPCA says
Alaska SPCA has criticized the Iditarod and has condemned how mushers treat their dogs:
"The race should not be a race! The original serum run was done in relays. It is what happens "BEHIND THE SCENES" during the rest of the year that needs to be told.... The breeding, culling [killing] and poor treatment needs to be exposed."
- Email to the Sled Dog Action Coalition, March 4, 2002
- Ethel D. Christensen, volunteer Executive Director, Alaska SPCA
Permanent chaining of dogs is cruel, dangerous and makes dogs aggressive
Keeping dogs continuously chained is massive psychological cruelty:
[Iditarod dogs are tethered on chains as short as four feet. Each dog is kept in one spot and cannot interact normally with other dogs. Many kennels have more than 100 dogs and some have more than 200 dogs. In his introduction to the book Father of the Iditarod, Joe Redington, co-founder of the race, admitted that by 1990 he had 527 dogs living in his kennel.]
"Dogs are naturally social beings who thrive on interaction with human beings and other animals. A dog kept chained in one spot for hours, days, months or even years suffers immense psychological damage. An otherwise friendly and docile dog, when kept continuously changed, becomes neurotic, unhappy, anxious and often aggressive."
- King 5 Television, Seattle, December, 2002, website
"Canada's best-known expert on dog behaviour says keeping a dog on a short chain its whole life and depriving it of social interaction is as cruel as depriving a two-year-old child of the same basic necessities.
Dr. Stanley Coren, a University of B.C. psychology professor, was commenting on a case in Victoria, where the SPCA seized an 11-month-old rottweiler from a house at 510 Raynor Ave. after it was alleged that the dog spent her entire life on the end of a 2.5-metre chain. [From the Sled Dog Action Coalition: A 2.5 metre chain is 8.202 feet. Iditarod dogs are kept on chains 4 to 5 feet long.]
It was the first time in the B.C. SPCA's history that the society seized an animal on grounds of psychological, rather than physical, abuse."
"I think the easiest way to think about what's going on is to remember that a dog has the mind of a two-year-old human child," Coren said. "If someone took a two-year-old child and tied him to his bed area, forced him to eat near his feces, allowed him to get cold and in the way of drafts, and didn't give him any social support, I think we would agree that everyone in the world would claim that this was massive cruelty.
That's the mind you're dealing with when you're dealing with a dog. The same kind of things that will damage that two-year-old's mind will damage a dog's mind."
- Nicholas Read, Vancouver Sun, February 28, 2002
The necks of chained dogs become raw and infected:
"In many cases, the necks of chained dogs become raw and covered with sores, the result of improperly fitted collars, and the dog's constant yanking and straining to escape confinement."
Sebastian County Humane Society, Fort Smith, AR, December, 2002, website
Tethering makes dogs easy targets for attacks by other animals, etc:
"A chained animal may suffer...stinging bites from insects, and, in the worst cases attacks by other animals."
- King 5 Television, Seattle, December, 2002, website
"It jeopardizes the dog's welfare by exposure to attacks, accidents, direct and indirect poisoning, sick animals, etc."
- Dennis Fetko, Ph.D. December, 2002, Dr. Dog website
- Dr. Fetko is and expert in animal training and behavior
Dogs on chains are easy marks for wolves, foxes and coyotes:
"'A dog on a chain is an easy mark,' [Howard] Golden said. He said the size of the dogs attacked suggests wolves, not coyotes, are responsible. Coyotes weigh 40 to 50 pounds. An adult wolf typically weighs 85 to 115 pounds."
- Howard Golden is an Alaska state Fish and Game biologist
- Ben Spiess, Anchorage Daily News, April 6, 2003
"But when he looked out, he saw an arctic fox pulling dog-food pans to the side of the yard and licking them out. [Randy] Romenesko said he shooed the fox away with a shovel, but it came back. It tried stealing a pan from one of his chained sled dogs, which lunged at the fox and missed."
"'I kind of threw the shovel at him. But he didn't run off, he ran toward me.'
'Then I realized I was no longer armed,' he said. He ran in the house, grabbed his .22-caliber rifle, waited for a clean shot and dispatched the fox.
It had behaved so oddly that he contacted local authorities, who shipped the fox's head to the state virology lab in Fairbanks. The results: positive for rabies".
- Steve Rinehart, Anchorage Daily News, March 20, 1997
Dogs easily made sick from eating animal feces and bird droppings:
"Dogs are scavengers by nature, taking treats where they can find them. It's impossible to explain to a dog that eating a particular item could cause injury or death. As a result, it has become a human responsibility to protect dogs from foraging instincts that might have been useful in the wild but can be deadly to companion dogs.
Risky Business:
Several things your dog can find outdoors are harmful if swallowed. You can see some of the hazards, but others you cannot:
- Animal feces and bird droppings. Animal feces can transmit parasites, bacterial infection, or virus to the dog."
- VeterinaryPartner.com, January, 2005
Flies who bite are attracted by odor of waste on the ground:
"When you see a dog house with a circle of dirt around it, you know you are looking at the 'home' of a chained dog. The area where the dogs can move about becomes hard-packed dirt that carries the stench of animal waste even if the owner picks up fecal material.
The odor of waste draws flies, which bite the dog's ears often causing serious bloodly wounds."
- Jean V. Johnson, WHS/SPCA News, 1991
Dogs on chains are vulnerable to lightning strikes:
"Dog houses are not safe, and dogs which are chained to metal chains or wire runners are particularly vulnerable to a nearby lightning strike."
- National Weather Service, Public Information Statement, May, 2002
-- Lightning storms occur during winter and summer months:
"Usually they [thunderstorms and lightning] are observed along the Outer Coast as strong cold fronts move in from the Gulf of Alaska. Interestingly, these storms can occur during the winter months as well as during summer."
"Very active thunderstorm days may feature 2,000 to 5,000 lightning strikes, mainly occurring during the late afternoon hours in late June and early July."
- National Weather Service, Juneau, Lightning Page, website article, April, 2003
Dogs on chains are vulnerable to attacks by rabid animals:
"But when he looked out, he saw an arctic fox pulling dog-food pans to the side of the yard and licking them out. [Randy] Romenesko said he shooed the fox away with a shovel, but it came back. It tried stealing a pan from one of his chained sled dogs, which lunged at the fox and missed."
"'I kind of threw the shovel at him. But he didn't run off, he ran toward me.'
'Then I realized I was no longer armed,' he said. He ran in the house, grabbed his .22-caliber rifle, waited for a clean shot and dispatched the fox.
It had behaved so oddly that he contacted local authorities, who shipped the fox's head to the state virology lab in Fairbanks. The results: positive for rabies".
- Steve Rinehart, Anchorage Daily News, March 20, 1997
Dogs on chains are vulnerable to attacks by humans:
"Alaska State Troopers and school officials are investigating the slaying of a Teller teacher's dog by some of her students, officials said Tuesday.
Five kids -- three girls and two boys -- between the ages of 13 and 15 have been linked to the stabbing death of the sled dog Willow, a member of the teacher's mushing team.
Trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson said two of the girls were present when the dog was killed but didn't participate in the stabbing. The third girl held the dog's head and comforted it while the two boys stabbed it with knives, troopers said."
- Tataboline Brant, Anchorage Daily News, November 10, 2004
"Alaska State Troopers found the 18 sled dogs that were reportedly shot to death in the village of Manley three weeks ago.
The dogs disappeared on April 8. The dogs were gone when their owner, recreational musher Chuck Parker, returned home from work that day. There was evidence the dogs had been shot and removed from a dog lot in the small town at the end of the Elliott Highway."
- Staff Report, Fairbanks News-Miner, April 28, 2005
Tethers can strangle dogs:
"Chains/ropes can get tangled and result in the dogs's being strangled or dangerously restricted."
Mohawk & Hudson River Humane Society, New York, December, 2002, website
Continuous confinement by a tether is inhumane:
"Our experience in enforcing the Animal Welfare Act has led us to conclude that continuous confinement of dogs by a tether is inhumane."
- The United States Department of Agriculture, 1996
"What we've done we've done for the citizens of this town because of safety first, and it's a humane thing to do for the animals."
- Councilman Woody Jumper of Big Spring, Texas talking about the city council voting to ban tethering
- Thomas Jenkins, Big Spring Herald, July 28, 2004
"If you need to secure your dog, get a big fence. If you need a security system, install an electronic one. If you want a dog but aren't willing to love it and consider its needs, get a stuffed one.
Chaining a dog all the time is no way to treat a thinking, breathing, trusting, loving creature."
- Marty Becker, DVM, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, January 21, 2003
"Dogs offer people undying loyalty and unconditional love. In return, they ask for nothing more than a sense of belonging." "To banish a dog permanently to the backyard, while the rest of his 'family' enjoy one another inside, is a betrayal of this loving pact -- that is not way to treat man's best friend"
- Nathan J. Winograd, The Ithaca Journal, November 21, 2003
- Winograd is the executive director of the Tompkins County SPCA
Chaining makes dogs aggressive:
"He [Eric Blow] said more effective are laws like the one in Louisville that bar dogs from being chained for more than one hour a day because chaining a dog has been shown to create aggressive behavior"
- Eric Blow, director of Metro Animal Services in Louisville, KY
- Andrew Wolfson, The Courier Journal, May 13, 2004
"'These are the dogs that bite,' said Robert Goldman, president of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Assn. 'When someone ties a dog to a chain in their yard, you've got a dog that is a time bomb.'"
- Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times, August 19,2004
"'You wouldn't tie your children outside,' he [Roger Mugford] said. 'Keep them indoors with you. And if you can't do that, don't keep a dog.'
'Dogs, just like human beings who get locked up for no reason, will get mean and bitter,' he said."
- Roger Muford is an international dog expert
- Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun, April 28, 2003
"It triggers a built-in thigmotaxic (opposition reflex) response to lunge toward stimuli.
It introduces the pain or discomfort of the restraint into any interaction. Both are common motives for aggression on their own; added to perceived threats and thigmotaxis, they are explosive.
It exacerbates defensive aggression by preventing escape but offering no protection from actual or perceived threats.
It reinforces aggression because passersbys "flee" when the dog lunges at them, thereby rewarding the lunge."
- Dennis Fetko, Ph.D. December, 2002, Dr. Dog website
- Dr. Fetko is and expert in animal training and behavior
"In addition to frustration, the constant physical restraint promotes excessive territoriality, which may be manifested as aggression. These attacks are completely unnecessary as they are easily preventable by using a secure fence for containment."
- Elizabeth Shull, DVM, president of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists
- Marty Becker, DVM, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, January 21, 2003
"Close to home, a child would wander away from playmates and enter a neighbor's dog lot. The huskies there were sometimes hungry and ill-tempered. No one played with them, no one petted them. Some of the males were aggressive. So, when the child tried to cross the lot, a dog might lunge, taking down his victim as quickly as a predator on easy prey."
'''Virtually none of the serious attacks in (Bush) Alaska come from roving bands of dogs,' DeGross said. 'They're always attacked when they wander into the area where dogs are chained up.'''
- Denny Gross is the former executive director of the Alaska Native Health Board
- Doug O'Harra, Anchorage Daily News, November 3, 1996
"On Oct. 23, 1994, when 2-year-old Tracy Ann Ishnook was playing outside her house in Koliganek. Her parents were installing insulation in the house and believed their daughter was outdoors with other children. But Tracy had wandered into a relative's dog lot.
When her father, Wassillie Ishnook Sr., found her, a sled dog had torn her nose nearly off and was attacking her legs.
''Her face was all bloody, her leg was torn -- and when I saw her leg, I thought we'd lost her,'' Ishnook said."
"Outside of the village, the horror of the Koliganek attack struck people with as much impact as a death. Yet it was hardly an isolated case. A boy had died only a few months earlier in the Yukon River village of Pitkas Point in a mauling by a loose sled dog. A girl in the Brooks Range village of Ambler had been scalped by a dog that was secured."
- Doug O'Harra, Anchorage Daily News, November 3, 1996
"A 2-year-old girl in a southwest Alaska village lost her leg and was badly bitten in the face last weekend after wandering into a sled dog lot. A week earlier in a village near Kotzebue, a dog tore the scalp off a 4-year-old girl.
The two maulings are the latest examples of what public health officials describe as a serious, long-standing threat to children throughout rural Alaska dogs."
- Tom Bell, Anchorage Daily News, November 4, 1994
"A village toddler who set out for a short walk to his grandmother's house was found an hour later near his uncle's dog lot mauled to death by a sled dog."
- Natalie Phillips, Anchorage Daily News, June 10, 1997
"A 3yearold Talkeetna boy died Saturday afternoon after being attacked by a HuskyMalemute sled dog that had broken its tether.
The youngster, Jerry Lee Cornell, was declared dead at Valley Hospital in Palmer. The dog, belonging to musher John Barton, was taken by animal control officers."
- Larry Campbell, Anchorage Daily News, May 7, 1990
Children have a greater chance of dying from dog attacks:
"Statistics show that the younger the person who's attacked, the greater the chance they'll die. For example, of the 36 dog-bite deaths in Alaska since 1940, all were children under 10, according to the state epidemiology office."
"The deaths of these children make Alaska's rate of dog-attack fatalities 26 times the national average, says a 1979-to-1994 study by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta."
"The biggest threat is in the villages where there can be as many as 400 to 500 sled dogs, said Ron Perkins, who oversees injury prevention programs for Indian Health Services."
- Linda Weiford, Anchorage Daily News, April 14, 1998
Chaining forces dogs to go against their natural instincts:
"When the dogs are first put on a chain, they tend to throw a temper-tantrum."
- Freedman, Lew and Jonrowe, DeeDee. Iditarod Dreams, Seattle: Epicenter Press, 1995
Chaining creates abnormal conditions by keeping dogs in solitary confinement:
"Virtually every dog who spends most of the day on the end of a chain will show temperament problems- no surprise to those who understand canine behavior. Chaining by definition, keeps a dog in solitary confinement, continually thwarting its pact instinct to be with other animals or with its human 'pack'."
-Jean V. Johnson, WHS/SPCA News, 1991
"Dogs are very social creatures. They need to interact. The permanent tethering of dogs denies them any possibility for normal social behaviors. In fact, this situation denies them any possibility of normal exercising, as well."
- Suzanne Cliver, D.V.M., Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, July, 1998
Killing or culling unwanted dogs
Musher drowns unwanted puppies:
"...The [Iditarod] board was silent when Iditarod musher John Cooper wrote a story for this newspaper's magazine talking about getting rid of unwanted puppies by tying them in a bag and tossing the bag in a creek."
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, April 20, 1992
Musher kills puppies with an ax, shoots ones left alive:
"Iditarod musher Frank Winkler was charged Friday with animal cruelty for bludgeoning 14 sled-dog puppies with an ax handle, although he said in an interview earlier this month that he reluctantly shot them. After a neighbor reported hearing puppies whimpering in the night, an animal-control officer visited Winkler's trailer Sept. 7 and found the battered puppies piled in a crate in the back of his pickup. Two were barely alive and the rest were dead.
One of the live pups 'was crying and was cold, clammy, wet, bloody and showed clinical signs of shock,' Assistant District Attorney Mindy McQueen wrote in a charging document. The other was half-buried in the pile of dead pups. Both live dogs had crushed skulls and were later killed by animal-control officers."
- Marilee Enge, Anchorage Daily News, September 21, 1991
"The small pups were only a week old, [Frank] Winkler said. The older pups ranged from
5 to 10 weeks old, he said."
- Don Hunter, Anchorage Daily News, December 7, 1991
"Winkler tries to kill some of his puppies by hitting them with the blunt end of an ax. He doesn't hit all of them hard enough to immediately kill them.
He tries to shoot some others with a borrowed .22-caliber rifle, but trying to hold down a puppy while cradling a rifle is no easy task. Winkler has to be careful to avoid shooting himself. He is lucky in that he succeeds. He is unlucky in that the shots only wounded some of the puppies.
Two live. Winkler, unaware of this, throws them into a box in back of his truck with the corpses of their brothers and sisters. He goes home. The dying puppies whimper while Winkler sleeps. A neighbor hears the whimpering."
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, April 20, 1992
Dan MacEachen, former Iditarod musher, shoots unwanted dogs:
"MacEachen has run Alaska's Iditarod - at 1,150 miles, the world's premier dog-sled race - seven times."
- Gwen Florio, Rocky Mountain News, April 6, 2005
"Unwanted dogs at one of the largest tourist sled-dog operations in the country are shot in the back of the head and buried in a pit filled with excrement...."
"Dan MacEachen, owner of the Krabloonik sled-dog center in Snowmass Village for 31 years, said several dogs have been shot with a .22-caliber rifle and buried in a pit where feces from about 250 dogs are deposited. The exact number of animals that have been shot is in dispute, but a former employee said it has been as many as 30 in one year."
- Thomas Watkins, Denver Post, April 6, 2005
"Dan MacEachen, who acknowledged that he shot and killed old or injured Alaskan huskies - and some younger dogs that didn't take to pulling sleds - with a .22-caliber rifle, faced heavy criticism after his method of destroying the animals came to light this week."
- Steve Lipsher, Denver Post, April 7, 2005
Mushers unable to find homes for unwanted dogs:
"Who out there is dumb enough to believe that some musher living in the middle of nowhere is ‘able to find good homes for the dogs?"
- Craig Medred, Anchorage Daily News, March 5, 1993
Mushers killing puppies:
"Killing unwanted sled-dog puppies is part of doing business, many Alaska mushers say."
- Anchorage Daily News, October 6, 1991
Culling or killing 3 month old puppies:
"[Musher] Plettner said she checks her dogs at 5 weeks old for size, appetite and aggressiveness. Then she tries to work with ones that need improvement, testing the pups weekly until they are about 12 weeks old. After she rates the dogs on feet, coat, digestive system, angulation of legs, drive and smarts, she culls."
- Anchorage Daily News, October 6, 1991
Mushers getting rid of dogs who run a mile an hour too slow:
"They [the big racing outfits] can't keep a dog who's a mile an hour too slow."
- Musher Lorraine Temple, Currents Magazine, Fall 1999
Unwanted dogs clubbed or dragged to death:
"On-going cruelty is the law of many dog lots. Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull dragged to death in harness. (Imagine being dragged by your neck-line at 15 miles per hour while suffering a major heart-attack!) ...."
- Mike Cranford, Two Rivers, Alaska
- The Bush Blade Newspaper, serving Cook Inlet and Bush Alaska, March, 2000, website article
Famous musher bred 300 dogs to get 5 good ones:
"On a recent TV documentary and typical of many [mushers], a famous Iditarod musher stated that she bred 300 dogs to get 5 good ones!"
"...Help stop the culling and killing."
- Ethel D. Christensen Alaska SPCA Volunteer Executive Director
- The Alaska S.P.C.A. website April, 2001
Unwanted dogs are killed:
"'I'm definitely going to have to cull some dogs. There's no way we can keep them,' he [Charlie Campbell] said."
"The culling won't start until the mushing season begins and he and his wife can assess each dog. 'We're going to have to be ruthless about who we keep.'"
- Joel Gay, Anchorage Daily News, September 30, 2002
"Competitive dog mushing is built on dead dogs, from the time slow-looking puppies are culled to the moment some overbred, undersized racing hound expires of overexertion."
- Mike Doogan, Anchorage Daily News, April, 1994
Death by gunshot is often a painful way for dogs to die:
"The Iditarod is an 'extreme sport,' and like in other extreme sports, its athletes (the dogs) are frequently injured, sometimes permanently, or die. Unlike in other extreme sports, most of the participants didn't choose to compete, they were forced into service, and they have nothing to say about it because they are dogs. For those dogs who do survive the Iditarod, for the many on the fringe of the competitive circle who aren't good enough to compete or aren't worth breeding, they will be shot when they have outlived their usefulness. They aren't even deserving of the kind of compassionate death we guarantee most convicted murderers - painless lethal injection. Those who do live, for a while, spend most of their hours tied by a short chain to a stake."
- Jim Willis, Director, The Tiergarten Sanctuary Trust
- Mr. Willis is the author of the acclaimed book Pieces of My Heart - Writings Inspired by Animals and Nature, crean.com
AVMA does not recommend routine euthanasia by gunshot:
"Gunshot should not be used for routine euthanasia of animals...."
- 2000 Report of the American Veterinary Medical Association Panel on Euthanasia
Agents and Methods of Euthanasia:
Species Acceptable Conditionally acceptable
Dog Barbiturates, inhalant anesthetics, CO, potassium chloride in conjunction with general anesthesia N2, Ar, penetrating captive bolt, electrocution
- From 2000 Report of the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia
- Dr. James B. Nichols, University of Vermont, Office of Animal Care Management website
Some culled Iditarod dogs are skinned for fur
Dogs skinned for parka ruffs and mittens
"....As a dog handler myself, I rescued two old Iditarod stars before their owner ended their fame with a shot to the brain. Culling unwanted dogs is an on-going mushers' practice and one racer had numerous pits full of dead dogs from puppies to oldsters--- some skinned for parka ruffs and mittens!"
- Mike Cranford, Two Rivers, Alaska
- The Bush Blade Newspaper, serving Cook Inlet and Bush Alaska, March, 2000, website article
Dogs skinned to make mittens:
"He (Colonel Tom Classen) confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like starving dogs to maintain their optimum racing weight. Skinning them to make mittens."
- Tom Classen is a retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over 40 years
- Jon Saraceno, USA Today, March 3, 2000
Mushers charged with animal cruelty and reckless neglect
David Straub was not feeding his dogs:
"Animal control officers removed 28 dogs from the property of a Willow musher Saturday and cited him with 17 counts of animal cruelty after authorities said they found the huskies with rib, hip and tail bones protruding through their thick fur.
David Straub, a three-time Iditarod racer, was not feeding his dogs, said a Mat-Su Borough animal control officer.
Ten of the dogs were found to be emaciated, animal control officials said."
- Megan Holland, Anchorage Daily News, Oct. 20, 2004
Straub's dogs running in circles, foaming at the mouth, and one died:
"The complainant, Daniel Blythe, stated in writing that when he saw the dogs Oct. 10 they were starving, dazed, running in tight circles and foaming at the mouth.
Straub, who moved to Alaska from Missouri in 1996 to pursue dog-sledding, admitted one of his dogs died that day. He said it wasn't from starvation, but from the flu."
- John Davidson, Frontiersman, Oct. 22, 2004
David Straub found guilty of animal cruelty:
"A Palmer magistrate on Wednesday found Willow musher David Straub guilty of animal cruelty for failing to provide his dog team with enough food, water or veterinary care last fall."
- Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News, April 7, 2005
Charlotte Fitzhugh charged with reckless neglect:
"Bush musher Clay Farnham had heard all the horror stories about his neighbor's dog yard before he went over to investigate two years ago. Word was that more than 100 animals were going days without food and water at Charlotte Fitzhugh's place in Chistochina. A misguided sled dog breeder with a history of dog neglect, her animals were reportedly left to fend for themselves at temperatures beyond 50 below while she worked as a taxi driver in Fairbanks, more than 250 miles away.
Even with the warning, Farnham was unprepared for what he saw. "All the dogs were skinny and wild-eyed, he said. Some were chained to clapboard boxes offering little shelter; others were chained to trees.
A half dozen dogs lay dead across the snow, Farnham said. Hunks of flesh were missing from their emaciated bodies. 'It wasn't very hard to figure out what had happened,' he said. 'The live dogs were starving, and they were eating the dead ones.'"
"Eventually, the state filed 17 charges of reckless neglect against her [Charlotte Fitzhugh]."
"'We have 60 plus below here and they don't all have houses," said Terry Endres, who owns the Chistochina Lodge. 'Some nights, when it was still, you could hear those dogs crying all night long.'"
"'You've seen pictures of people starving to death in Somalia? That's what they looked like,' [Will] Forsberg said. 'I saw some dogs there so skinny I wondered if they could even get up.'"
"On Christmas Eve 1993, Alaska State Trooper Don Pierce searched Fitzhugh's yard after several of her neighbors reported she hadn't been seen for days. They were worried a cold snap would take a toll on the dogs.
'As I walked onto the property, I started seeing dead dogs,' Pierce said. 'They were dead on the ends of chains. ... It was real grim.'
Pierce said he found five bodies that day. Necropsies later showed the dogs had less than 1 percent body fat. 'The dogs were essentially feeding on their own tissue and organs,'
he said.'"
- Peter S. Goodman, Anchorage Daily News, April 7, 1995
Norman Mac-Alpine charged with animal cruelty:
"An Anvik man who competed in the 1983 Iditarod and often runs the Yukon 200 has been charged with animal cruelty after four of his dogs died while he was out of town. Alaska State Troopers said Norman Mac-Alpine, 29, left his dogs without food or water for almost five days while he was in Grayling, a nearby village."
- S.J. Komarnitsky, Anchorage Daily News, October 2, 1993
Frank Winkler charged with animal cruelty:
"Iditarod musher Frank Winkler was charged Friday with animal cruelty for bludgeoning 14 sled-dog puppies with an ax handle, although he said in an interview earlier this month that he reluctantly shot them. After a neighbor reported hearing puppies whimpering in the night, an animal-control officer visited Winkler's trailer Sept. 7 and found the battered puppies piled in a crate in the back of his pickup. Two were barely alive and the rest were dead.
One of the live pups 'was crying and was cold, clammy, wet, bloody and showed clinical signs of shock,' Assistant District Attorney Mindy McQueen wrote in a charging document. The other was half-buried in the pile of dead pups. Both live dogs had crushed skulls and were later killed by animal-control officers."
- Marilee Enge, Anchorage Daily News, September 21, 1991
Untold story of dog care costs
Many mushers have gigantic kennels. Think about how much it costs to take care of just one dog. A healthy dog needs veterinary checkups every year and other items like food, heart worm medication, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo and flea medication. Think about how much more it costs to care for a sick dog.
Do you believe that mushers can afford to adequately care for as many as 100 dogs or more?
"The sprawling Matanuska-Susitna Borough is Alaska sled dog country, a hub for professional and recreational mushers lured by a vast network of trails and the freedom to keep kennels that can number as many as 100 dogs or more."
- Rachel D'Oro, Associated Press, May 2, 2005 |
