First Dog in (2008) Iditarod Dies
Thanks to Mike for pointing out that last week the first dog died in the Iditarod. The coverage at AOL is more than most (others just reprinted the AP story). Zaster, a 7-year old male dog, had apparently been showing sign of pneumonia, and 503 miles into the 1,100 mile race he died.
I guess the thrill of the race for the people is worth the potential death of their dogs.
When I was glancing over the 84 photos on the AOL site, the choice of photos did not go unnoticed. There are a handful of people kissing their dogs and another handful of vets examining dogs. There are several heartbreaking close-ups, but for the most part you don’t at all get the feeling that there’s a thousand-plus mile race going on.
For me, each image of dogs tied to each other, pulling a person on a sled, is dispiriting. Though the death of Zaster is a tragedy, at least he’s free of the Iditarod.
There’s a discussion with over nearly 2,300 comments already in progress. I didn’t look through all of them but the ones I see are typical: the people who find the event unfathomable on the face of it, versus those who of course claim the dogs love to run.
I’m sure some of you wonder why I write so often about the Iditarod, the Yukon Quest and Greyhound racing. Here’s why: If we can’t get rid of what could be the most egregious examples of man’s dominance over an animal, especially when that animal is alleged to be his best friend, how on Earth can we get people to stop using animals they don’t claim any particular affinity for?
First, let me say that I don’t have any problems with bringing attention to the nasty business of legalized dog abuse, not do I have any problem whatsoever with the portion of “dog posts” on this blog. Also, Mary, you have a good point that if people don’t respect dogs, they probably won’t respect any other nonhuman being. However, I think we also have to look at the people themselves.
The kind of people who support the Idiotrod are the kind of people who either do, or might as well, support dog fighting, hunting, and other forms of animal abuse. Although we occasionally get through to some of these people to go vegan and stop abusing animals, as a group, they are not our optimal target audience. I think this is true of most single-issue problems. The main thing we want to do with the Idiotrod is to show the abuse.
The other point I’d like to make – and this point is of utmost importance – is that our hourly and daily food choices are THE ROOT of all of our animal abuse problems. Attacking single issues too much can be like hacking at the leaves and branches of the evil tree. The leaves and branches grow back faster than we can hack at them, but if we keep at the root, eventually we can kill the whole tree. The only exception to the “avoid obsessions on single issues” rule is where a person has particular expertise in that area as an advocate.
Mary, you have a daily blog with about 30 excellent posts monthly, and “dog issues” only take up a very small portion of your posts, so I’m not at all saying that you are being a single issue advocate by occasionally posting about dogs. I am saying that groups like PETA, Farm Sanctuary, and HSUS would do much better for animals by focusing on veganism as a moral baseline. Unfortunately, these groups are too beholden to their animal–abusing (i.e. animal-product-consuming) donors to “rock the financial boat” like that.
Second dog killed in Idiotarod – 3-year old female dog named 'Lorne' killed in collision with snowmobile on Sunday night.
I refer to the dogs who die in these races as being KILLED. These (Yukon Quest/Idiotarod) mushers KNOWINGLY gamble with the lives of their dogs who face death in numerous ways. In a perfect world, anybody who would enter these races should have their dogs seized at the starting line, receive a 'kick in the ass with a frozen moccasin' (as they say in the North) and sent packing.
Anchorage Daily News story: Snowmachine hits, kills Iditarod dog
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/story/340776.html
Ignorance is obviously bliss.
It seems that you and some of your readers have never spoken with a musher. If you had, you would understand the strong bond between the dogs and the musher. I'm not a musher, but I have taken the time to understand mushers and their dogs by actually visiting kennels and talking with several mushers. Do you really believe all mushers intentionally put their dogs at risk of death? What do you say about the hundreds of pets who are killed by cars because individuals across American suburbia let their animals run lose, intentionally or accidentally?
Alan,
You and I (and most of my readers) disagree on a fundamental point: We don't believe dogs are ours to use.
And as for whether I believe mushers are intentionally putting their dogs at risk of death–of course they are. I'm not sure how you can say otherwise, although I have no interest in that debate as it is tiresome.
Furthermore, people shouldn't let animals run free (I'm actually referring to cats, as I assume dogs aren't running free). If they do, they are indeed putting their lives at risk.
Be that as it may, to compare letting your cat roam the neighborhood to pushing a dog to exhaustion or death is absurd. Putting an animal in a position where something bad might happen is not the same thing as literally driving an animal to illness, injury, exhaustion and/or death.
THIRD DOG KILLED IN IDIOTAROD (belated posting):
Ed Iten's dog 'Cargo' dies – no cause given
"A 4-year-old male named ‘Cargo' died at 5:00 pm on Tuesday March 11, 2008. Cargo was part of the team of Kotzebue Alaska musher, Ed Iten (Bib #32). He passed away between Elim and White Mountain. A necropsy will be conducted by a board certified pathologist to make every attempt to determine the cause of death."
– Idiotarod website advisory, March 12, 2008
No further word on how one of the dogs hit and severely injured by a snowmachine on the night of March 9 is doing (female dog Lorne killed in collision).
Enough said, Alan?
"Rest in Peace" Cargo, Lorne and Zaster
Mary, thank you for keeping 'sled dogs' close to your heart.