Dog Mushing: Is it Inherently Good or Bad?

I am a card carrying dog lover. So, am I allowed to think that dog mushing is okay? Not according to one reader. If you would like to see the original article and the comments it provoked, go to Dog Sledding in Alaska.

Although I do find extremists to be interesting and to shed a little light onto one side of a subject, I have to admit that I am a more "middle of the road" type of gal. I believe that there are two sides to every story. I also believe that a person can find statistics to prove either side of an argument. Hence, the heated debates like the "Cabin Fever Debates" at the library pitting the University of Alaska team against Alaska Pacific University's team on local, national and foreign current events last night. Perhaps they even debated the dog mushing issues…

I am tempted to spend the next few hours coming up with solid numbers and examples to back up my rebuttal to this outcry against dog mushing, but I just don't have that kind of time. My three-year old wants to play. So, I will tell you what I know. That is that there are bad individuals (and mushers… an lawyers… and writers) out there that are not kind to their dogs, their spouses, and their children. BUT, that does not mean that ALL people are bad. And, yes, there are mushers out there who are unkind to their dogs, but MOST of them are NOT. Most mushers got into the sport because they love dogs.

For all of the sensational news reports, there are hundreds of loving caring mushing families who are never mentioned because it is not interesting enough to catch the news readers attention. Dog mushing is a way of life up here. The dogs LOVE to pull. The Denali Park rangers patrol the park by dog sled in winter. They do a fantastic demonstration for the tourists in the summer. The tourists are instructed at the beginning of the demonstration not to break the circle until the rangers tell them to, because that signals to the dogs that the demonstration is about to begin. No one can hear the ranger from that moment until the chosen dogs are in harness (they rotate the dogs so they each get a turn). And, sure enough, when the circle is broken, the dogs go WILD. "PICK ME! PICK ME!" The dogs who moments before had been quietly laying around, bored in the summer heat, are jumping, barking, whining, "PICK ME!" Once the team is assembled, the remaining dogs just go back to sleep until their next chance to get in harness. They love it. They live for it. These dogs have a purpose and that purpose is to run and pull a sled.

The Iditarod veterinarians who volunteer to check out the dogs at the required checkpoints along the way (note the word "required"), are there to make sure that only healthy dogs continue on in the race. The mushers are responsible for the dogs that they leave at a given checkpoint. Lance Mackey, the winner of last year's Iditarod (and last year's Yukon Quest), had to leave a beloved team member at one of the last checkpoints before winning the race. He almost scratched (dropped out) of the race rather than be parted from that dog. He was not callus, casual or thoughtless about his team member. When he crossed the finish line, one of his first questions to family was about the welfare of his dog.

Bad individuals do not make a bad sport. In the paper this year, there has been mention of a musher who was trying to sue the state for taking his team away from him when they were discovered malnourished and ill in his kennel. Another dog musher, and Iditarod winner, Martin Buser, was ready to testify against him as he was a witness at the time that the dogs were removed from the kennel. And, there was a top contender for the Iditarod, Ramy Brooks, who was seen beating his dogs during the race last year. He was banned from the race for two years. The reader's account states that he was beating them with a ski pole and a chain. That was never ever reported up here. Eyewitnesses were quoted in the paper as seeing him beat them with a flexible trail marker (not that it makes it okay, but let's be accurate… I mean really… a chain?). Even, if and when, Mr. Brooks may attempt the Iditarod again, he will be under incredible scrutiny, as well he should be… Remember, individuals may be violent but that does not turn the whole community of dog mushers into monsters. Hopefully, Mr. Brooks will get some counseling on anger management before he takes up racing again.

Races, like the Iditarod, have rules to protect the health of the dogs. Those rules were made by mushers, for mushers. Mushers love dogs! The Iditarod is an extreme sport that requires training and caution. The mushers are at risk in this environment too. There have been frozen feet (people feet) and retina's (in people eyes) and much more. The reason that some many dogs (and people) that start the race do not finish it, is because they are drop out when it gets to be too much from them. The reason the ratio of dogs not finishing is so high is that for every one musher that scratches, 16 dogs scratch too.

The Yukon Quest is currently en route. The Iditarod starts on the first Saturday (restart on Sunday) in March. Check out race history, mushers, and follow the races on:
www.yukonquest.com
www.iditarod.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 3:06 pm and is filed under Blogroll by Alaska Guide (thesunnycircle). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response

4 Responses to “Dog Mushing: Is it Inherently Good or Bad?”

Margery Glickman Says: February 13th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

The Iditarod is terribly cruel to dogs. For the facts, visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website, http://www.helpsleddogs.org.

Here's a short list of what happens to the dogs during the Iditarod: death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons, vomiting, hypothermia, sprains, fur loss, broken teeth, torn footpads and anemia.

At least 133 dogs have died in the Iditarod. There is no official count of dog deaths available for the race's early years. In "WinterDance: the Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod," a nonfiction book, Gary Paulsen describes witnessing an Iditarod musher brutally kicking a dog to death during the race. He wrote, "All the time he was kicking the dog. Not with the imprecision of anger, the kicks, not kicks to match his rage but aimed, clinical vicious kicks. Kicks meant to hurt deeply, to cause serious injury. Kicks meant to kill."

Causes of death have also included strangulation in towlines, internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury, heart failure, and pneumonia. "Sudden death" and "external myopathy," a fatal condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during extreme or prolonged exercise, have also occurred. The 1976 Iditarod winner, Jerry Riley, was accused of striking his dog with a snow hook (a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In 1996, one of Rick Swenson's dogs died while he mushed his team through waist-deep water and ice. The Iditarod Trail Committee banned both mushers from the race but later reinstated them. In many states these incidents would be considered animal cruelty. Swenson is now on the Iditarod Board of Directors.

In the 2001 Iditarod, a sick dog was sent to a prison to be cared for by inmates and received no veterinary care. He was chained up in the cold and died. Another dog died by suffocating on his own vomit.

No one knows how many dogs die in training or after the race each year.

On average, 53 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 cross, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who finish the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.

Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over 40 years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into submission:

"They've had the hell beaten out of them." "You don't just whisper into their ears, ‘OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the devil.' They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying." -USA Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column

Beatings and whippings are common. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "I heard one highly respected [sled dog] driver once state that "‘Alaskans like the kind of dog they can beat on.'" "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...A whip is a very humane training tool."

During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Brooks admitted to hitting his dogs with a wooden trail marker when they refused to run. The Iditarod Trail Committee suspended Brooks for two years, but only for the actions he admitted. By ignoring eyewitness accounts, the Iditarod encouraged animal abuse. When mushers know that eyewitness accounts will be disregarded, they are more likely to hurt their dogs and lie about it later.

Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted dogs, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged or clubbed to death. "On-going cruelty is the law of many dog lots. Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses....." wrote Alaskan Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper (March, 2000).

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."

The Iditarod, with its history of abuse, could not be legally held in many states, because doing so would violate animal cruelty laws.

Iditarod administrators promote the race as a commemoration of sled dogs saving the children of Nome by bringing diphtheria serum from Anchorage in 1925. However, the co-founder of the Iditarod, Dorothy Page, said the race was not established to honor the sled drivers and dogs who carried the serum. In fact, 600 miles of this serum delivery was done by train and the other half was done by dogs running in relays, with no dog running over 100 miles. This isn't anything like the Iditarod.

The race has led to the proliferation of horrific dog kennels in which the dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have over 100 dogs and some have as many as 200. It is standard for the dogs to spend their entire lives outside tethered to metal chains that can be as short as four feet long. In 1997 the United States Department of Agriculture determined that the tethering of dogs was inhumane and not in the animals' best interests. The chaining of dogs as a primary means of enclosure is prohibited in all cases where federal law applies. A dog who is permanently tethered is forced to urinate and defecate where he sleeps, which conflicts with his natural instinct to eliminate away from his living area.

Iditarod dogs are prisoners of abuse.

Sincerely,
Margery Glickman
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org

MonicaS Says: February 13th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

I have never even been to Alaska, or to any other Canadian or American territory in which dog mushing is practiced. So, I'll try to remain respectful of the ... sport, if that's what you call it

It is often said there are two sides to every story. In many cases, there are 5 sides, 10 sides, 100 sides. But when all the sides of this argument are analyzed and deconstructed and debated, I don't know how any reasonable person could come away with the belief that the way these dogs are confined for their lives (hideously short chains, kennels, etc. in sub-zero temperatures) is anything but abusive.

Just because something "has always been done" does not make it right. Keeping sled dogs chained for their lives is an EASY way to keep and confine them, but it simply cannot be the most humane way to do it. I hope dog mushers will just give it some thought. I'm not criticising. All of us are often surprised by the new revelations that come to us when we really stop to ponder something. Thanks for listening.

Dog and Puppy Stories » Dog Mushing: Is it Inherently Good or Bad? Says: February 13th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

[...] thesunnycircle added an interesting post today (Dog Mushing: Is it Inherently Good or Bad?).Here's a little bit of it:In the paper this year, there has been mention of a musher who was trying to sue the state for taking his team away from him when they were discovered malnourished and ill in his kennel. Another dog musher, and Iditarod winner, ... [...]

thesunnycircle Says: February 13th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

I was sort of sad to see that Margery just posted her original anti-dog mushing propaganda here (in addition to the first article) instead of composing a message with new original thoughts. I am trying to create a conversation. It is misinformed to think that every dog musher keeps their dogs chained outdoors, though many do. The truth is that many such dogs would just be too darn hot inside. I believe Mary Shields, the first woman to complete the Iditarod, once said in a talk that I attended that she would let her dogs come in when they wanted, but they would never stay in for long for that very reason.

The Norwegian mushers that have been doing so well in the Iditarod in the last few years keep smaller kennels than the typical Alaskan kennel. Maybe that is the direction that the sport should be heading. They then compile a team by taking the best of their combined dogs and taking turns as the musher. They claim that part of their competitive edge is the bond formed between the dogs and the mushers due to the smaller kennels (in addition to training on stamina, running slower, but further, etc). More information on Team Norway at: http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/coverage_2006/cov06_nov11_01.html

I neglected to add, in my original article above, that there are mandatory rest periods built in to the Iditarod a 24-hour rest anywhere along the route, an 8-hour rest, also chosen by the musher, and an additional 8-hours at "Safety," one of the final checkpoints. This gives the vet's a chance to give the dogs additional care and observe them, rather than just giving them a quick "once over."

Lance Mackey, who won the Iditarod last year credits his team for his win:
["I feel this is one of the steadiest, most willing-to-please teams. They'll do anything for me," he told a crowd at Nome's mini convention center. "That's exactly the reason why I'm here in the position I am. It took a little something extra to beat the people I did."]
Source: http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/coverage_2007/cov07_mar13_03.html

Lance had to drop one his dogs before the final push to the finish line. According to CRAIG MEDRED and KEVIN KLOTT of the Anchorage Daily News:

[WHITE MOUNTAIN --- Always faithful Zorro was awaiting a plane ride home from this checkpoint as a tearful Lance Mackey hit the trail toward Nome and what is expected to be a historic finish to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race later today.
…
Just before leaving, a highly emotional Mackey wiped back tears as he comforted the 9-year-old male veterinarians think might have contracted pneumonia.
"Buddy, you'll be all right,'' he said. "I'll see you in a little while.''
…
Though cognizant of the fact he was on the brink of Alaska mushing history, Mackey was clearly troubled that Zorro wouldn't be joining him under the burled arch that marks the Iditarod finish line in Nome.
"I've had better mornings,'' he said as he prepared to leave Zorro at the checkpoint. "But it's a real great day nonetheless.'']
Source: http://dwb.adn.com/sports/story/8705247p-8607850c.html

I think that, until you see something first hand, it is difficult to wave a broad hand over it and say "evil, bad!" It's not as if the mushers are sitting on the rails the entire "ride." They have to pack down trail if it's too snowy (that means the musher is in front, leading the dogs… on foot.) The dogs don't just lay down in the snow. Every time they stop to rest, the musher puts down straw for each dog to rest on. Each dog has booties that then need to be changed (to keep their feet from getting cut on the ice, and keep snow from balling up between their toes). Then the musher gets out the proprane heater and melts enough snow to give the dogs water. Okay, in four hours (a typical rest period), who is getting the rest? The dogs. Anyone who thinks this is a bunch of dogs pulling a lazy person has not done any research.

I love Mary Shields' story of finishing her first Iditarod in 1974, placing 23rd. She entered the race with just 8 dogs, the smallest team on the field. This woman is one with her dogs. She started in Anchorage, as all of the mushers do. She raced at a leisurely pace all the way to Nome. She crossed the finish line with women waving banners, "You've come a long way, Baby" (this was in the 70's). Then, after the mushers banquet, she hopped on the sled and made her way back to Fairbanks by sled… with a happy, healthy and willing team of dogs. This gentle woman never hit a dog in her life, I'd bet.
http://www.maryshields.com/

The Iditarod also rewards mushers on their kindness to their team. The Leonard Seppala Humanitarian Award is given out at the completion of each race. This award is coveted among the racers. The Iditarod mushers vote for the musher that they feel was the best in caring for their dog team on the trail.

Finally, in regard to this piece of Margery's diatribe:

["Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over 40 years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into submission:
"They've had the hell beaten out of them." "You don't just whisper into their ears, ‘OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the devil.' They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying." -USA Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column."]

There is nothing to this other than one man saying that HE BELIEVES that the mushers are lying. No real proof… no real event… just what he personally believes to be the truth. This is grasping at fictional straws, trying to flesh out an argument that you must believe needs more than the numbers that you have written down to create an emotional response in your readers. I say he's wrong. I do not think that these dogs are beaten to run. They love to run. I have stood on the sidelines and watched them take off. In downtown Anchorage they have to use two sleds to hold the dogs back because the dogs want to run so badly, heads up, tails up, game on! The Iditarod is a partnership between man and dog, not a prison march.

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