Dear Editor,I am writing in reaction to Randi Brockman’s article published on Feb. 28 concerning the Iditarod dog sled race.
We are not talking about little dachshunds here. These are huskies and malamutes, and running long distances in the snow is in their genes. They have been bred and trained all their lives for this sport. When you see pictures or video on the news of dogs at the start of the race, you see them excited and straining with all of their might, ready to go.
I won’t deny that dogs have died in the race but accidents do happen and deaths, though tragic, are not as common as Brockman writes. In the past three years of the race, only one dog has died in each of the races, a number dramatically reduced from years past.
And these mushers mentioned aren’t the cruel beasts they are made out to be in the article. Not only yelling commands to the dogs, they also constantly navigate, scan for dangers in the path, and watch out for natural predators that could harm their dogs.
They have spent thousands of their own dollars and hours training and preparing for this challenge, and in all that time the dogs have become like family members to them.
In response to the claim that “there is little if any medical care on the race,” the dogs are well taken care of during the entire length of the race. There are strictly adhered-to guidelines for how much food must be taken for the dogs and how much time they must be given to rest. These rules and regulations of the race are on the Iditarod’s official web-site (www.iditarod.com) but Brockman didn’t seem to think they deserved consideration before publishing her highly biased article.
Rebecca Lasseter

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