Corporate-sponsored abuse...

Oh boy, the Iditarod is here! Time to drive dogs to their deaths. The dogs that were "culled" with a bullet to the head throughout the sled dog breeding year were the lucky ones...


Iditarod dog deaths unjustifiable

by George Diaz
Orlando Sentinel
March 5, 2000

The unofficial death count is 114, though the numbers lie because it isn`t possible to follow all the bloody paw prints of innocent animals that have died in the name of this barbaric "sport."

They have been strangled in towlines, gouged by sleds, suffered liver injury, heart failure, pneumonia and "external myopathy," a condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during extreme or prolonged exercise. [more...]

"Culling is a common practice among mushers. The Iditarod mushers breed many dogs, hoping to get a few who will be fast enough to race. According to an article in the Anchorage Daily News, "Killing unwanted sled-dog puppies is part of doing business" (October 6, 1991), most of the mushers cull by shooting their dogs in the head. An animal who is not properly restrained when the musher shoots may suffer an agonizing death. Mushers also cull dogs who are injured in the Iditarod, old but otherwise healthy dogs, or any dog who is not wanted for any reason. Musher Lorraine Temple said, "They (the big racing outfits) can't keep a dog who's a mile an hour too slow" (Currents, Fall, 1999)."

Please read Abuse in Kennels for more information.