One of the cruelest examples of animal abuse in the name of sporting is set to kick off this Saturday.
The Iditarod, also dubbed “Ihurtadog” by animal rights folks, begins in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 5, and runs (no pun intended) until everyone crosses the finish line in Nome – usually about 9 days later.
Just in case you don’t have a map handy, that trek is over 1,000 miles long and over some pretty nasty terrain. It’s the equivalent of hoofing it from New York to Orlando in the snow with temperatures well below frigid.
So imagine if you had to run that race – how hard it would be on your body. And I forgot to mention you’d be barefoot, hungry, probably ill and with a whip smacking you in the ass. Oh and there would be others in front of you defecating on you as they run because you’re not allowed to stop to relieve yourself.
If you fall, tough, you get dragged along with the rest of your team until you break something or fall over dead. Then you’re discarded because you’re useless.
Sounds like a hell of a vacation doesn’t it?
Of course daily life wouldn’t be much better when you live in a tiny pen out in the cold. And that’s only if you make it past infancy. If you’re not big, strong and fast enough you’re not adopted out or given away. You’re drowned or shot. And when you get too old to run, you’re shot. And if you get injured racing, you’re shot, assuming the race itself doesn’t kill you first.
Not a very nice life, huh? Sad to think hundreds of innocent dogs live that horror every day, and for just shy of a fortnight a year, they live the ultimate hell running themselves to certain death.
To put it in even grander perspective, there is little, if any, medical care on the race. There are only three required rest stops, totaling just at 40 hours, and there is no guarantee a veterinarian will even see a dog during those times.
In fact, sources show that almost 50 percent of dogs who begin the race do not finish due to injury, illness or death. And as mentioned before, dogs who don’t measure up don’t last long in this “sport”.
Now, the race is cruel in of itself, but what makes it even more pathetic is how it’s touted in the media as commemoration of a valiant diphtheria serum run from 1925.
However, the race is really only a rehashing of sweepstakes runs from the 1900s. Runs which were, like recent races, all about money.
Winning mushers stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars from prize money, sponsorships and breeding fees. And while some of the monetary amounts may seem small in comparison to what some celebrities make for one appearance or commercial, they are large to people living in small towns where the dogs are their biggest expense.
To top it off, all those men and women who get the prizes in the end really do is sit on a sleigh and yell – half the time they sleep while the dogs (the ones exerting mass amounts of energy) barely get to rest.
In fact, there is nothing in the Iditarod rules that prohibits mushers from being half drunk while racing. So, not only do the humans involved barely do anything, they can do it while wasted.
I think Alaska and the folks in charge of the Iditarod should take a cue from the kids who put on the animal-free Ikidarod in Mission Hills, Calif..
Let the humans pull the sleighs for a while. It might just change some outlooks.

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