Dear Editor,
The Iditarod is a cruel act to dogs and should be banned. Small animals should not have to haul hundreds of pounds of equipment through the harshest terrain on the planet. Many dogs are permanently maimed during the race and, consequently, will be put down.
Dogs are being exploited for profit by their owners. A life is priceless, whether it be human or animal. These poor dogs are vastly overworked to the point where many just collapse. Let us not forget that these dogs have to run 1100 miles for a measly $65,000. Surely 8-14 dogs running 1100 miles deserve a little more than the measly return of barely being kept alive. If the prize of the Iditarod, for first place, was all expenses paid and a meat tray, then not that many teams would be participating. The odds of winning, or even finishing, the Iditarod are reasonably low. Imagine being a dog and training for hours a day and then losing the race you have spent your life training for. Most of the dogs that run the Iditarod also develop injuries such as cut paws, gastric ulcers and arthritis.
Hundreds of dogs develop irreparable spinal and leg damage.
The reality is these dogs weren't designed to pull 600 pound sleds.
Consequently, many dogs are put down once they develop spinal injuries. One might argue that this is the humane thing to do; however, it should never have happened in the first place. The issue is heartless mushers who overload and overdrive their dogs until these injuries occur. The dogs that sustain spinal and leg injuries are not old and frail. They are prime dogs that break down after constant stress on their body. Young dogs should not be racing the Iditarod course, no dog should be.
The Iditarod should be banned as it is a cruel act to dogs. Hundreds of dogs are permanently injured and are put down. A life is not worth $65,000, it is priceless. These dogs are exploited to the point where many are “run to death” or where many just collapse of exhaustion.
