Iditarod Cruel to Dogs

This seems like a good day to talk about dogs. Because Bush preempted Survivor, I was able to walk my dogs last night. Also, now that I’m on the subject of dog walking, I thought it would be a good time to talk about where to look for me if I disappear while jogging. If I disappear while jogging, it’s very simple. Look on Rostosky Ridge Road. I’m serious. I jog up an extremely steep hill which is in a remote area. Few motorists drive by. There are steep cliffs in that area also. It would not be unheard of for a 52-year-old woman to have a heart attack jogging up that hill. I could even fall over the cliff if that happened to me. So it is obvious where to look if I disappear while jogging!

Okay, onto the main subject, which is dogs. According to a letter to the editor in The Daily News, Monday, April 25, 2005, which is a newspaper published in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, the Iditarod race is cruel to dogs. The title of the letter is "Iditarod is ‘dog torture’", and it is from Margery Glickman, director, Sled Dog Action Coalition, www.helpsleddogs.org. Glickman states that Iditarod dogs often race 1,150 miles, the distance between Pittsburgh and Austin, Texas in eight to fifteen days. Dogs often suffer "death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers, lung damage, pneumonia, viral diseases, ruptured discs and broken bones." As my readers know, I have been going to two Presbyterian churches weekly. Please pray for forgiveness for me for wishing penile frostbite on certain individuals in the news lately who have done things to little girls. I’ve been much less angry, and my minister at Round Hill, Rev. Meek, has been working on his anger as well as ours. But some individuals in this society make it hard to completely give it up. Anyway, people who would do this to dogs are also among them.

But I digress. Glickman goes on to point out that an average of 53 percent of the dogs who start the Iditarod do not finish. She cites a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine which states that 81 percent of the dogs who do not finish suffer lung damage. She also cites The Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine as reporting that 61 percent of dogs who do finish have ulcers. None of the dogs who start have ulcers before the race, according to this journal. However, Glickman says sick dogs are often forced to start the race and given massive doses of antibiotics to keep them in the race. Glickman even names racers who were overheard to admit that they drugged their dogs because of their ambition to win. "If the dogs could walk, they’d say the Iditarod is dog torture," writes Glickman.