A friend of mine recently asked me to come with her to the Wild Ride Sled Dog Rodeo. She is a tour guide and she sometimes gets free tickets to things like flightseeing, rafting and other excursions. The idea is that if the tour guides enjoy the show, they’ll talk it up to their customers who would then purchase tickets to see it themselves.
Once I found out that this was a dinner show, of course I said yes. I’m not one to pass up a free meal.
So we headed over to the show, which is in downtown Anchorage near the Ulu Factory. The tourists were thick in the waiting area, and we decided that we fit in pretty well except that we weren’t sporting an Alaskan hat or T-shirt.
A young man let us in to where they keep the puppies, and I got a few pictures. There were two pens of puppies- one with 5-week old puppies and one with 9-day-old puppies. They were so cute I almost stuffed one of them in my purse.
After holding the 9-day-old puppies, we got to visit with the 5-week-old puppies for a few minutes before heading in to the show. This was the cutest one:
We were called into the arena (a gravel-covered oval with bleachers) and the show began. The operation is owned and operated by Dallas and Jen Seavey, son and daughter-in-law of Mitch Seavey, an Iditarod veteran. In 2005, Dallas was the youngest person to ever run the Iditarod and in 2009, he came in 6th place. He is only 22 years old.
The show consists of mushers racing around the track on dog sleds, a weight pull, and a lead dog steering demonstration. My favorite part was when they hooked up a full team of 16 dogs and they pulled a 10,000 lb truck out of the arena.
Jen Seavey and Hugo, the star of the movie “Snow Buddies”
After the show, we were invited into a tent which was decked out and served a delicious meal of roast beef, potatoes and sauteed vegetables. The chocolate cake with raspberry sauce was to die for. During dinner, Jen and Dallas mingled with the crowd, answering questions and visiting. After dinner, they told the story of how Dallas came in 6th place this year, which was fascinating. We also watched a great video about the Iditarod on flat screen TV’s.
Inside the Tent
Dallas and Jen Seavey telling the tale of Iditarod 2009
I would definitely recommend this show to visitors from out of state, but as an Alaskan, I found it interesting and entertaining, too. I do have to admit, though, that snuggling the puppies was my favorite part.
For the dogs, the Iditarod is a bottomless pit of suffering. Six dogs died in the 2009 Iditarod. Two dogs on Dr. Lou Packer’s team froze to death in the brutally cold winds. What happens to the dogs during the race includes death, paralysis, frostbite (where it hurts the most!), bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons and sprains. At least 142 dogs have died in the race. No one knows how many dogs die after this tortuous ordeal or during training. For more facts about the Iditarod, visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website, http://www.helpsleddogs.org .
On average, 52 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 finish, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who complete the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.
Iditarod dog kennels are puppy mills. Mushers breed large numbers of dogs and routinely kill unwanted ones, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, including those who have outlived their usefulness, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged, drowned or clubbed to death. “Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don’t pull are dragged to death in harnesses……” wrote former Iditarod dog handler Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska’s Bush Blade Newspaper.
Dog beatings and whippings are common. During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, “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…”
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.”
During the race, veterinarians do not give the dogs physical exams at every checkpoint. Mushers speed through many checkpoints, so the dogs get the briefest visual checks, if that. Instead of pulling sick dogs from the race, veterinarians frequently give them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them running.
Most Iditarod dogs are forced to live at the end of a chain when they aren’t hauling people around. It has been reported that dogs who don’t make the main team are never taken off-chain. Chained dogs have been attacked by wolves, bears and other animals. Old and arthritic dogs suffer terrible pain in the blistering cold.
Margery Glickman
Director
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org
I am a dog musher from Anchorage Alaska, and I would like to clear up a few of the facts Margery Glickman stated in her comment.
First of all, the percentage of dogs that die in the Iditarod is not nearly as much as the percentage of household pets that die everyday due to starvation, being hit by cars, neglect, etc. Out of the 52 million pet dogs in the United States, 6.2 million die every year due to the above mentioned causes. Thats 12 percent. Out of the 1088 dogs that started the 2009 Iditarod, 6 died. Thats only 0.6 percent.
The injuries that occur in the Iditarod are no different or worse than the injuries in any other major race. In the 2008 Boston marathon, paramedics treated over 900 runners in their medical tents. The injuries included: 3 heart attacks, dehydration, hyponatremia, hypothermia, sprained muscles, tendonitis, contusions, stress fractures, and much more. Any sporting event will show the same statistics – many injuries occur.
In 2009, 505 dogs (out of 1088) didn’t finish the race. That’s 46%. Just because 46% of the dogs don’t finish the race, doesn’t mean that all 46% dropped out due to injury or other causes. Out of the 505 dogs that didn’t finish the race, 256 were on teams that dropped out of the race all together. A large majority of the dogs are taken out of the race because the musher is stopping for their best interest. If a dog team is not strong enough to complete the race, a musher will drop out for the sake of the dogs. The dog musher’s primary concern is the health and safety of their dog team.
Average lifespan of a pet dog is about 12 years. Average lifespan of a sled dog is 14 years. This is proof that sled dogs are very well cared for throughout their life, and receive the best treatment possible. This is what allows them to have such a long lifespan.
You mentioned the use of a whip. Not many mushers use whips, but for those who do, the whip never comes in physical contact with a dog. The use of the whip is to create a noise which the dogs are trained to respond to, just like if a musher were to yell a command at the dog. The dogs are not afraid of the noise – the cracking noise the whip makes can be compared to the whistle a person uses to train hunting dogs.
A musher is not allowed to pass through a checkpoint until the dogs are checked over by the veterinarians. All of the vets along the race course are so skilled and well-trained that they can spot injuries by watching the way a dog acts. There are multiple vets at each checkpoint, so when a dog team pulls in, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes for the vets to completely check over the entire team.
Most mushers chain their dogs using a 10 to 12 foot chain, which gives the dogs a 112 square foot area to run in. The average dorm room size (for 2 people) is 228 square feet. Thats 114 square feet per person. A 112 square foot area provides plenty of room for a dog to run around in. Dog yards are also chained in to prevent animals such as wolves and bears from getting in.
Colonel Tom Classen was quoted in the comment, however, I have no idea why his opinion is qualified on the subject of dog mushing. Sure, he is a long time Alaskan resident, but he has no history with dog mushing or any sled dogs at all. He is an air force Colonel, not a veterinarian.
Please don’t judge dog mushing until you can actually see sled dogs at work and see how much they love to do what they do. The “Sled Dog Action Coalition” that Margery Glickman mentioned is based out of Miami, Florida. I’m not sure how anyone from Miami can have any real knowledge about dog mushing.
Erin,
I’m glad you enjoyed the show, and thank you for understanding how much sled dogs love to run
Thank you for leaving your thoughtful comment. I do not know how much of what you said is true, but I do know one thing- those dogs are loving every minute of their time mushing. It is what they are bred for, train for, and live their lives to do. You can see it in their faces, you can hear it in their excited yelps prior to taking off. As soon as they start running, they are completely silent because they are so focused on what they are doing.
Another thing I know is that all of the dogs in the show that I saw were former sled dogs. They are living very happily and are dearly loved and cared for by their owners.
I can’t say that all sled dogs are treated kindly, but I can also say that not all dogs, anywhere, are treated kindly.
Thanks for visiting my blog.