How many dogs have died in the Iditarod?

In almost all of the Iditarod races, at least one dog death has occurred. The first race is reported to have resulted in the deaths of 15 to 19 dogs. In 1997, the Anchorage Daily News reported that “at least 107 (dogs) have died.” In the years since that report, 29 more dogs have died in the Iditarod, bringing the grand total of dogs who have died in the Iditarod to at least 136. There is no official count of dog deaths available for the race’s early years and this count relies only on a reported number of deaths.

Causes of death during the last ten years have included strangulation in towlines, internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury, heart failure, and pneumonia. “Sudden death” and “external myopathy,” a condition in which a dog’s muscles and organs deteriorate during extreme or prolonged exercise, have also been blamed. In 1985 a musher kicked his dog to death. The 1975 Iditarod winner, Jerry Riley, was banned for life in 1990 after being accused of striking his dog with a snow hook (a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In 1996 Rick Swenson’s dog died while he mushed his team through waist-deep water and ice.

How do mushers benefit from running their dogs in the Iditarod?

Many thousands of dollars in prizes are awarded to the winning mushers. The largest prize is given to the musher whose team crosses the finish line first. However, prize money is also given to teams who first reach certain points along the trail. Mushers who are hired to be in corporate advertisements receive substantial financial benefits, as do mushers who reap royalties from the sales of books they write or the speeches they give. These corporations turn their face away from the cruelties the dogs are forced to endure.

Linda – Dog sledding is animal exploitation at its most basic. Dog racing is not necessary; on the contrary, it’s a sport, a leisure activity, a hobby or a sort of chosen career. Mushers, breeders and the like use animals to turn a profit; in such a capitalistic system, the animals’ health and welfare is the first thing to be sacrificed. After all, they’re just property, commodities, replaceable cogs in the system.

Honestly, I don’t see how you could possibly argue that forcing animal to work in such brutal conditions could be anything less than cruel. The link you provided, rather than dispute any of the facts at http://www.helpsleddogs.org, simply defends common dog sledding practices. For example, the claim that sled dogs spend most of their days in chains isn’t rebuked, but defended: “everyone does it.” Nor does it deny that dogs are raced to death; here, the excuse is that these are accidents.

These type of excuses don’t fly with me. In case you haven’t noticed, this is an animal RIGHTS blog – so I don’t think anyone should chain dogs, whether they’re Alaskan mushers or dog “owners” in “the lower 48.”

Oh, and to call the article you linked to a “study” is ridiculous. It’s a load of speciesist propaganda from a self-proclaimed Iditarod fan, at best.