On the Yukon Quest
Photo by Ian Stewart of the Yukon News
In keeping with this week’s inadvertent twisted-things-we-do-to-dogs theme, I give you the Yukon Quest, which is sort of the less-popular stepsister of the Iditarod, but no less horrible for the dogs. It is in fact called "The Toughest Sled Dog Race in the World."
As you may know, both the Quest and the Iditarod are grueling races of over 1,000 miles. The competitors are called "mushers." The Quest has 50 mushers, each with a team of 14 dogs, and the first 15 finishers share a $200,000 purse.
The Yukon Department of Tourism and Culture markets the event, and children are taught about it in the classroom, sometimes by teachers who are on the board of the Quest! There’s even a Junior Yukon Quest, to make sure the youngins are completely desensitized to the reality of what they’re doing.
I’ll say this once: The dogs love to run.
And I’ll say this once: To make them run when you want them to run, in treacherous conditions in subzero weather (it was -40 F the last time I checked the weather on the trail, and winds can reach 100 miles per hour on mountain summits), for over a thousand miles in 10-16 days (while you watch and "mush" from your sled), is, in my mind, an extreme injustice regardless of whether one dog is injured or dies during the race, before it (during culling), or after it (from injuries and/or exhaustion).
And by the way, musher Donald Smidt has already been withdrawn from the race "for failing to provide the dog care expected of a Yukon Quest participant." If the Quest isn’t considered cruel on the face of it, just how badly do you have to treat dogs in order to get withdrawn on the second day of the race? (Check out what you have to do to get disqualified from the Iditarod: It rhymes with "beat your dogs in front of young children.")
As for culture, remember that it’s sacred only because it was sacred yesterday. If your culture involved a 1,000 mile sled dog trek at one time, chances are in 2008 the only reason something like that is necessary is to promote tourism and grab a glimmer of glory and a bit of cash if you’re a musher. And as for what happened yesterday, the Quest commemorates the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush and river mail delivery routes. It started in 1998, the centennial of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. If you really need to commemorate it, I’m fairly sure there’s a less ugly way.
Last year I learned just how venomous mushing-defenders can be when criticized (I won’t dignify them with any more exposure than that). Activist Mike Greico learns that lesson over and over again, all year round. As does Terry Cumming, of Sleddogwatchdog.com, who works tirelessly to open the eyes of his neighbors and the rest of the world to the cruelty inherent in the Quest and the Iditarod. Judy Stone of the Animal Advocates Society in British Columbia has dedicated her life to chained, abused, ill and neglected dogs (including sled dogs) and TNR efforts. All three are vilified by people who apparently believe that the most valuable activities they should spend time on are the use of dogs for their own gain, and the ridicule of people who disagree with them.
For those of us who will never visit or move to the Yukon or Alaska, thereby withholding our dollars (by default), at least we can spread the word. Check out the sponsors of the Quest, and if you do business with any of them or own their stock, take appropriate action. Sponsors are just following what they believe will be a trail to some sort of gain. Let them know they’ve taken the wrong path.
Hello Mary,
I’m sorry to hear that you have been trashed and “vilified” by “mushing defenders.” We’re not all like that. As a musher, I’ve been attacked and trashed by some animal activists but I’m not going to say that you are all like that. In fact, I emailed the director of Sleddogwatchdog.com when the site first appeared and got a nice response back. It’s obvious he really cares about the dogs.
However, I disagree with the viewpoint that sled dog races and the mushers who run them are inherently cruel. If you ever do get up to Alaska you should stop by Crazy Dog Kennels and meet 2-time Yukon Quest champ John Shandelmier, his wife Zoya DeNure and their sled dogs. I can’t speak for every single musher in the world since I don’t know them all but John and Zoya (and all the other mushers I know) are about as likely to mistreat their dogs as you are to mistreat yours!
Last weekend I ran in the Casper, WY sled dog races – a far cry from the Yukon Quest but a competition no less. Great fun and next to impossible to hold the teams back. I’ll say this, I did a lot more than just watching from the sled! Granted, there are times when you can’t do much more than watch because the dogs are running so fast, but handling the sled takes a lot of exertion on the part of the musher! I am still sore from using muscles I don’t generally (I mainly do dryland mushing) and from dragging along behind the sled when I didn’t go around a turn right. I didn’t make those dogs run. We would never have made it out of the starting chute if they didn’t want to go! We won a hand-painted dog bowl and $20 in the race – which doesn’t even cover my entry fee! LOL
Anyway, sorry this is so long. Thank you for your time.
Alice White
Dog & Sled – http://www.dx4solutions.com/dogandsled/
Wolf Moon Dogsledding – http://sleddoggin.com/blogs/wolfmoonsleddog/
Hi Mary (Alice, I did appreciate hearing from you last year – the "Reasonable Musher") – thank you both for taking time to think about and contribute to the 'sled dog' discussion. Sled dog advocacy is on the opposite end of the scale when compared to the animal advocacy attention given to whales and dolphins, harp seals and wolves, as examples. It is common amongst animal lovers to view sled dogs (and greyhounds) as "working dogs" (not needing affection and love like a companion pet). It is also common amongst DOG LOVERS to either view sled dogs similarly, or to accept 'carte blanche,' that all dog mushers have "a special bond" and love for their dogs.
I likely would not have devoted so much of my spare time speaking up (this is by no means a full-time job, I do not need or accept money for my efforts) had I not had sufficient 'insider information' about Yukon and Alaskan sled dog cruelty. I have gained much more such information since I took a public stance. Practically no one will speak up publicly giving first hand information about the various cruelties involved in the dog mushing industry, and the cruel history of the Yukon Quest. And it IS an industry up here, with the both the Yukon Quest and sled dog tourism being heavily promoted with public money. To add to that, there is no animal welfare agency with powers to enforce humane treatment of animals including sled dogs, outside of the City of Whitehorse. The government money that is needed for this purpose instead goes into the dog mushing propaganda machine.
I would dispute that 'most mushers' (at least in the Yukon and Alaska) treat their animals well. I would say the opposite, that there are very few mushers who have a commitment to the lifelong care of their dogs. I do appreciate that of the 'professional mushers,' John Schandelmeier is rare in his speaking up about Alaskan sled dogs being discarded ("950 sled dogs per year going through the Fairbanks Animal Shelter"). Mr. Schandelmeier, I believe, rescues some of these dogs, trains them to be working or racing sled dogs and rehomes them with other mushers. He has in recent years used rescue dogs in the Quest.
In the early 1990's I went a few blocks during my morning coffee break, to see John Schandelmeier who had just finished the Quest (can't recall what year, or if it was a year that he had won) and was with his dog team on Main Street Whitehorse. His dogs were curled up into little balls and were whimpering and licking their sore feet, legs and bodies. Mr. Schandelmeier was hovered over them and to me, it appeared that he was apologizing to the dogs [for what he had subjected them to], as would a man to his wife or family after a domestic dispute.
I don't want to paint Mr. Schandelmeier as a saint, he must have some deep dark secrets having been a trapper for many years and I am sure he knows about some of the bad stuff that has happened to sled dogs over the years, as part of the Alaskan dog mushing/racing fraternity.
Not to make too much of it, but my maternal grandfather was a trapper (using dog teams) for much of his life, operating around where Northern Saskatchewan, NWT and Alberta meet. My father had a working dog team from when he was a young teenager because his father/my grandfather was often away in winter, weathered in somewhere on the Mackenzie River system (he was a ship's captain, who spent a lot of time on the Mackenzie, Slave and Athabasca Rivers) and my dad had 8 sisters and 1 brother to support. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to talk to my dad about his dog team before he passed away suddenly several years ago. One of my mother's uncles was a famous priest who was well known in the north for travelling long distances with sled dogs.
I have travelled throughout the north (NWT, Nunavut, Yukon) in my job for close to 25 years and have always felt sorry for the dogs in the numerous dog yards I have seen. In Iqaluit, Nunavut, dogs were chained to the shoreline in the community, with no protection from the wind and cold.
I first started to get a close bond with discarded sled dogs and 'dog yard dogs,' through spending a lot of time volunteering at our humane society. My wife and another couple, and various friends of ours would take almost every dog in the shelter out to a beautiful fenced property owned by the other couple, we made a special effort to always take the huskies (who needed to run the most). Many of these dogs had never been off a chain in a wide open area and would be shocked to find themselves free to run when they got out of our vehicles – and run they did, when they realized it was safe and OK. We did up to 5 or 6 20-mile return trips one day of almost every weekend for close to five years until our friends sold the property and moved away. I love to see a bit of that wild (husky) streak in dogs.
I have been doing lots of soul-searching with regard to my sled dog advocacy because I have not taken an outright abolitionist standpoint (our right to use animals for any purpose – my view to my own two shelter dogs is that I am here to serve them, and that they own me) although I have strong opinions. One of the things that most infuriates me is Yukon society billing the Yukon as some sort of sled dog paradise when it is anything but. The common way most dogs are kept here is that they are chained for long periods of time next to shabby, uninsulated dog houses. They are always under control, whether it is at the end of a chain or in harness. Many of these dogs do not get regular food, water or vet care. Most of the local QUEST mushers are not ashamed about selling or giving away surplus dogs/ex-Quest dogs, through ads in our local papers or pet supply stores. I am as much concerned about about the ones whose names I do not see selling or giving away dogs.
Just needed to clear up a few points before the web trolls descend. The Quest has a maximum field of mushers set at 50, they have seldom or never come anywhere near getting that number of race entries. This year, the '25th running' (next year is the '25th Anniversary') of the Quest, the organization was hoping to get close to that magic number, through Lance Mackey winning both the Quest and Iditarod. Mackey apparently used 13 of the same dogs in the Iditarod who had won him the Quest just weeks earlier (one of these dogs neary died from pneumonia). The Quest was hoping that more Iditarod mushers would follow in his footsteps by running both races. The number of racers this year who made it to the starting line was 24, as of this morning the field was down to 17 remaining mushers.
Mary, I thank you so much for your special powers and Alice, please give your doggies some big hugs from me.
I would like to thank online, the Yukon News, especially Quest reporter Genesee Keevil (gkeevil@yukon-news.com) who has done some great reporting about the race (what has she done in the last couple of years to deserve this distinction? …She has simply reported what she has seen and heard and doesn't 'sugar coat' her Quest reporting as every other Yukon reporter does). I would like to thank Senior Editor Richard Mostyn for allowing his paper to be the last bastion as a media entity for allowing public discussion about dog mushing and the Quest. That picture of the injured dog, taken by reporter/photographer Ian Stewart is sad, moving and powerful. I hope he wins a newspaper award… What is the name of that beautiful and noble dog?
P.S. – EXACTLY HOW DID THAT DOG GET HURT???
Alice,
First let me say that for those of us who are interested in animal rights, cruelty of the Ramy Brooks kind really isn't the issue, although it's clearly horrible.
For us, the use of animals when we don't need to use them–and I cannot think of an instance where we would actually need to use them–is morally unacceptable.
For example, I have adopted two Greyhounds who were used for racing. I wouldn't think of making them run to satisfy some desire I have (like to watch them compete or see if they'd win or to make myself a couple of bucks). For those of us interested in allowing animals to live their lives as free of us as possible, "pet ownership" is even a compromise, although because we have created an enormous population of domesticated cats and dogs I feel we are morally obligated to do something about that.
I take my dogs to run, and if they feel like running they do, and if they don't they walk around and sniff and roll and leap around.
The cruelty inherent in mushing is most obvious in egregious situations like the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest, but there's also cruelty and injustice in dominating and controlling animals and making them do what you want, when you want. Even if the activity is something they might like to do, like run.
What animal rights activists want is for people to stop using animals, not to change the way they use them so it involves less culling or beating or mutilation. Animals have done their time in our service–against their will. It's time we let them be.
As a backcountry skier, mountain climber, animal rights vegan, and generally an endurance athlete who has included enthusiastic dogs many times in my skiing and running adventures, I can say from experience that dogs are very similar to humans in their enjoyment of a romp outdoors and their limited capacity for human extremism in competition. We (humans and canines) both love a romp in moderation, but there’s a fine line between a fun day outdoors and a living hell. Also, when it’s time to retire, it’s time to retire, whether it is from exhaustion of the day’s activities, or from old age. The dog whom I used to take with me skiing no longer goes due to age. The only reason I took her in the first place was because I could tell she loved it. She’s too old to enjoy it now. There were also many trips that I considered too long or too dangerous for her (e.g. marathon training runs, skiing in avalanche terrain, and potentially dangerous, but nontechnical mountain climbs).
The Alaskan “canine ultramarathons” and the Badwater (humans-only) Ultramarathon (a 135 mile endurance run in the California desert in hot 110F weather) have one major attribute in common: they are both EXTREME. The difference and problem is that while the Badwater is voluntarily entered into by people who love to punish themselves and can quit whenever they choose, the Yukon and Iditarod is INVOLUNTARILY entered into and the hapless participants CANNOT quit whenever they choose, even if it means serious injury or death. What if a group of “Badwater human mushing enthusiasts” FORCED humans to train for and run the Badwater? Would we not be outraged? What if they forced them to run until some of them died?
The difference between training for and running sled dogs in a 10 kilometer event versus forcing them to endure the Yukon or Iditarod events is like the difference between a parent who encourages their 16 year-old to enter the local 10K running race versus forcing the 16 year-old to train for and run the Badwater, come death or what may.
Sled dog racing at short to moderate distances (15 miles or less with proper training) probably is something that dogs genuinely enjoy as long as it is kept at the “fun” level, but don’t insult our intelligence and suggest that they enjoy being forced to endure the living hell of the Yukon or Iditarod cruelty-fests. These races should be as illegal as horrific forced child labor camps. It is sick human extremism inflicted on the innocent.
It is sad that man who is supposed to be the more intelligent on this earth has become the most feared. What a great honor…we should feel very happy to have this title. With all of this intelligence we say we have, why can't we seem to see the pain and suffering that we inflict on others?
I am tired of hearing that dogs love to run, of course they love to run, but in that kind of weather…they freeze as well as we can. But the difference here is that we as the more intelligent have the right to choose to freeze, they do not. I bet if asked they would rather have a nice warm home to live in.
I have read some of these comments and the more I read them the more I see that most of the ones that don't see anything wrong with this are the ones who had been using dogs, or still do. Of course we will never get any of these people to say that they abuse these animals.
I have for years watched these races along with all of the other forms of entertainment that we seem to use animals in, and for some reason I can't seem to understand why we just keep having to use them? Can't we with all of this intelligence come up with something that we can do that only includes humans, since we are given the choice to choose? Then if there is abuse, we will have to agree that it is abuse. But these poor dogs and other animals cannot tell us just how much pain they are in.
But this is just another act against innocent creatures. We force them into these situations because we can! We are nothing but big fat bullies!
'Ulcer-ridden Quest dog vomits blood on 2008 Quest trail'
Dog problems plague mushers on way to Eagle
By Matias Saari
Fairbanks, AK Daily News Miner
Published Wednesday, February 13, 2008
SLAVEN’S ROADHOUSE — Turning around is akin to taking points off the scoreboard, but on Monday three mushers did just that, and with good reason.
Julie Estey of Fairbanks left Circle City on Tuesday morning sporting a red parka and in the red lantern position, but a short while later returned and reluctantly dropped Timmy, one of her lead dogs.
Estey had carried Timmy in the sled basket the night before and hoped he had recovered enough to continue after an 8 1/2-hour break. That wasn’t to be. Estey, however, still passed Ann Ledwidge en route to Slaven’s Roadhouse.
Cor Guimond, meanwhile, left Slaven’s late Tuesday morning, but was unexpectedly back within the hour. Three of his dogs weren’t pulling well.
“I’m going to have to baby them,” Guimond said. “Some of them got hurt on the ice last night.”
Then he returned to the roadhouse to wait things out.
“It ain’t no fun being stuck,” Guimond said. “You gotta make sure you’re unstuck before you run out of grub.”
Guimond eventually got going again with 11 dogs, one fewer than when he first left Slaven’s.
Dan Kaduce’s experience, however, was the most serious.
Kaduce left Slaven’s in fifth place at 6:15 a.m. on Monday and returned about three hours later with a 4-year-old male named Guetknecht in his basket.
About 10 miles from Slaven’s, the dog vomited, so Kaduce pulled over, he said. Then he vomited a second time, with considerable blood.
“That’s when I realized we had to go back to Slaven’s or I probably would have arrived in Eagle with a dead dog,” he said.
Guetknecht, whom Kaduce said had bloody ulcers, was stable after getting to Slaven’s.
“The vet said he’s going to be fine,” he said.
Kaduce ended up dropping two dogs after his first Slaven’s arrival and two more on the second trip, leaving him with 10. He also lost eight hours of time — and five places — because of the ordeal, departing for good at 2:20 p.m.
Kaduce put his race on hold for the welfare of his team and was relieved nothing worse happened. He did not appear dejected about the turn of events.
“I want to finish, so I try not to think about it too much,” he said.
Kaduce was also the beneficiary of some good sportsmanship, as Bill Cotter and Kelley Griffin each gave him food — lamb, horsemeat and salmon — because he was running short after the extra trip.
“The food fairies delivered,” he said.
Awaiting Mackey:
A seemingly invincible Lance Mackey left Trout Creek 40 miles shy of Eagle at 6:45 p.m. Monday night; he was eagerly awaited there by those waiting to hear about his navigation of severe jumble ice near Kandik River.
Approaching Trout Creek late Monday afternoon, Hugh Neff had a narrow lead on Brent Sass as Ken Anderson camped in fourth place about 10 miles back.
Penalties assessed:
According to race rules, Ken Anderson, Bill Pinkham, Julie Estey and Kyla Boivin will have to spend an extra two hours at Eagle checkpoint because they failed to check out of the Chena Hot Springs checkpoint on Saturday.
The oversight was somewhat understandable, given the highly unusual circumstances of leaving there to truck their dogs to the Mile 101 dog drop because of a route change.
[A significant portion of the Yukon and Alaskan population apparently 'gets off' on this dog abuse – all the more reason to call for an end to this race and to seriously consider boycotting Yukon and Alaska as tourist destinations]
Please tell the Yukon Department of Tourism and Culture to stop rewarding sled dog abuse –
http://sleddogwatchdog.com/howl1.html
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/feb/13/dog-problems-plague-mushers-way-eagle/
Interesting comments from everyone.
A recurring theme I see here is the assertion that sled dogs do not have a choice as to whether they mush. They do. Case in point: last Fall, I hooked up two inexperienced dogs from a friend behind Calypso (my own dog whom, by the way, I do bring inside even though she has a thick coat to withstand Winter conditions. Unlike my non-sled dogs, she does not like warm things – she won’t go near the fireplace and I have to turn the hallway heater off before she will set foot there). Calypso was tired since she had already run that morning and she was getting annoyed with the bouncy huskies behind her. She decided she had had enough and didn’t want to run. We made it a hundred yards or so down the trail and then she stopped. I tried to get her going again. I petted her, told her to “hike!” and tried to be as enthusiastic as possible. No luck. She didn’t want to run. So…we didn’t run. And keep in mind that I WANTED her to run.
However, Calypso DOES want to run most of the time. Is it cruel for her to mush when both of us want to just because one of us is human? I love music. Is it cruel/immoral for me to buy and listen to CDs because that’s what the record company wants me to do?
I know I am kind of skirting the animal rights/abolition issues that separate me from most of you. I’d be interested in discussing this more but it’s late right now – time to get dogs inside. Hopefully I will have more time tomorrow.
PS to Terry – I too would like to know how the dog was injured. My first thought was ear injury which might have been caused by another dog biting him (or her!) but I certainly can't say for sure. Have you tried to contact the photographer?
Consider my dogs hugged!
Alice
Mary, thanks so much for this post. And ALL your post. You are wonderful. As always!
And many thanks to Terry Cumming for your time and compassion for the life of another! I will always back you in this "Good Fight".
***************************************************
Yukon News Feb 11/08
Of animals and irresponsible people
This recent cold spell has me thinking about all the animals in the Yukon (and elsewhere) who have been suffering and struggling to stay alive.
The chained dogs, the stray dogs and cats who do not have a warm refuge to wait for a change in the weather. Close to 350 dogs will soon be subjected to much misery (potential injury and death) in 'the 25th running' of the mighty Yukon Quest. Many, many more so-called sled dogs left behind to wait out their fate. Sad fate.
The distress of the trapped animals who slowly freeze to death, become pray or wait for the final blow from the trapper ("steward of the land") who will sell their hides so people can make a 'fashion statement'. The fur belongs to the animals! If humans were meant to have fur, we would grow our own.
On Thursday morning, the CBC Yukon 'A New Day' crew were complaining about this cold weather, with more cold weather predicted . Program Director Roch Shannon Fraser was heard to say "I'd like to shoot that groundhog, I can tell ya!" (That is what I remember hearing).
Mr. Fraser (and CBC) – How many times must people tell you to stop joking about animal cruelty? How many more times will you use animals as a pathetic joke? Eh?
Speaking of which, I hope CBC Yukon will take an occasional break from its Yukon Quest cheerleading, such as the 'A New Day' people socializing with the Quest mushers during the weekend layover in Dawson – while the real athletes ("slaves") shiver outside, and do some actual reporting about this brutal race for a change.
Does anyone know what is happening with the Yukon Animal Protection Act? Anyone?
Praise and comfort to all the animals!
Mike Grieco
Whitehorse
Welcome to the Yukon! Where animal exploitation is a "Larger the Life" celebration!
Pick an animal! Any animal! We exploit them all!
Pathetic!
**Peace & Health to ALL Life**
Alice,
Your experience in what I’m assuming is light to moderate distances in relatively warm weather (e.g. above 0F) is NOT the point. I fully accept that most (so-called) “sled” dogs enjoy “mushing” under moderate conditions and for moderate distances, just like my dog(s) like to run with me when I ski.
The fact that experienced trainers can psychologically condition dogs to run excessive distances in dangerous and extreme weather and make it *seem* like the dogs *want* to run themselves literally to death or damn close to death *says nothing* about whether it is extremely cruel and wrong to do so or not. These dogs are *bred* and *psychologically conditioned* to punish themselves and endure extreme pain and hardship because of the human perversion of dogs’ psychological needs.
Pit bull terriers are often bred and psychologically conditioned to fight to the death and many of them *seem* to “enjoy” dog fighting. This is *precisely* the same mentality that goes on in events like the Yukon Quest and Iditarod. Breeders and trainers in dog fighting and extreme dog sledding have essentially created dogs through breeding and training who will inflict tremendous injury on themselves and seem to do it “very willingly”. This is a perversion of the desire of a dog to follow a pack leader. It is sick and demented. I don’t have a problem with recreational, moderate sledding that is done as much or more for the dogs’ sake as anyone’s, but the extremism of the Yukon and Iditarod events is deplorable.
If someone asked me whether I’d rather be born a Yukon Quest sled dog or a fighting pit bull in rural Mississippi, I’m not sure which torture I’d regret more.
Hello Dan,
I am ashamed that there is dogfighting in my area. I’ve never seen it but I know it goes on. And believe me, I want it stopped.
However, I don’t see dogfighting as being at all like sled dog racing. Remember that originally, bulldogs were bred to control cattle in stockyards (hence the name bulldog) not fight each other. The raising of dogs for fighting has only recently come about. Sled dogs, on the other hand, were originally bred to pull sleds. Their sled dog instincts (including the one to disobey their musher if need be) go back thousands of years.
You might say “yes but the raising of racing sled dogs has only come about recently.” True. But look at the main difference. Fighting dogs are doing something very different from what their ancestors did. Sled dogs are still pulling sleds – these modern dogs are just much faster. And I have met quite a few of them.
I see the running/pulling instinct in practically every husky or husky mix I meet. I have never seen the fighting instinct in any pit bull or pit bull mix that I have met. Just yesterday, a pit bull mix came over and tried to play with my dogs – not fight them!
By far the biggest difference between mushing and dogfighting is this: In dogfighting, the POINT is to injure the dogs. Not so with mushing.
Alice,
I’m not sure how much more clear I can make the point that you’ve been dodging: I’m not making blanket statements about dogs pulling sleds. In moderation and where it is clearly for the benefit of the dogs, I don’t have a problem with it. In the case of the Yukon Quest and Iditarod (the events you’ve avoided commenting on lately), I think the extreme excess in training and the events themselves, both in miles travelled per day and per week, is very obviously cruel and abusive. It is the agony these dogs endure that I’m comparing to dog fighting, not the “goal” of the events. Both are cruel to the extent that I’m not sure if I’d want a life as a fighting dog or a Yukon Quest or Iditarod sled dog: both are miserable beyond my imagination.
If you are going to address my point instead of ignoring it, you will comment specifically on the cruelty inherent in racing dogs 1,000 miles over 10 – 14 days in extremely harsh winter conditions and training for such events.
Dan,
I didn’t mean to seem like I was avoiding the Iditarod and Quest. I have ridden along when some Iditarod mushers were training their dogs and I have seen neither abuse nor dogs in pain. The dogs were tired afterwards but there is a BIG difference between tired dogs and dogs who are in agony. To be completely fair, I did this earlier in the season so it wasn’t quite as intense as it is now. You have to gradually work up the distance you run whether your goal is a 6-mile race or a 1,000-mile one. However it doesn’t make sense either in training or in a race to go so hard that your dogs are in agony. For one thing, that would make the dogs not want to run and they would probably quit. As you mentioned, you would not want to run if you were in pain either. You wouldn’t be able to do what you can do when you are feeling good. Sled dogs certainly couldn’t. Yet, from what I have seen, read and heard, the dogs generally come into the finish tired but otherwise okay. The sled dog has the right form to run long distances in winter conditions (their wild cousins – wolves – also have the right form to withstand that weather).
Like I said, I have met quite a few sled dogs – from recreational to Iditarod and Quest racers. Those who I have met do not show signs of a life of suffering. In fact, many of them act much like a pet Labrador. One of my favorite sled dogs I have met is a 14-year-old, 7-time Iditarod finisher. He’s happily retired now and in better shape than most 8-year-old dogs I know. Running the Iditarod has not adversely affected him in any way I can see!
So, basically all that to say that I don’t think most distance racing sled dogs are in a constant state of torture.
Hi Alice, Dan and Mary – I am strongly against both the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest not just because of the suffering that is inflicted on dogs during the races but for also what happens to dogs the rest of the year. The totality of my philosophy is contained on my website, which includes important criticism of the Quest and exploitation of Quest dogs from Seppala Sled Dogs (Quest is "sheer exploitation of sled dogs"). I must also keep reiterating the issue of culling of sled dogs and puppies which I know is a fact of life for dogs, at least here in the Yukon and Alaska where most of the Quest mushers hail from.
It is disgusting that dogs are forced to run up to and over 100 miles a day while pulling a heavy load through difficult terrain (the Alaska side of the Quest is known for the incompetence of Alaskan Yukon Quest race officials in preparing a proper trail). How do dogs train for 100 mile runs? Aside from the mushers who put dogs in training for hours at a time in carousels (like gerbils and hamsters), there is no way to prepare dogs for this demand on their bodies. All Quest and Iditarod mushers are gambling with the lives of their dogs who can drop dead at any time. Many dogs suffer from ulcers, this year one Quest dog, as previously posted, vomited blood. Mushers and vets knowingly allow ulcer-afflicted dogs and dogs nursing injuries to be run in the Quest. Yesterday a Quest veterinarian was interviewed on radio about one of the Quest mushers being disqualified for poor dog care early in the race.
The vet refused to give the particulars on why the musher was kicked out – e.g. was he seen beating his dog team? Last year 4-time Iditarod finisher John Suter wrote a letter to the editor (which is easy to find on the net and is also on Mary's 'Chime in regarding dog mushing' blog from late Oct. 2007). I am glad this is still on the net, but I rarely visit that page because of the bad memories of that time from dealing with the individual who was opposed to my views and ridiculed me in local papers and on the net for my sled dog advocacy. This individual ultimately ended up bringing disrepute to his own name and must live with his words.
John Suter stated that "all the top Iditarod mushers" beat their dogs in order to be competitive. This was in response to Ramy Brooks being caught beating ("kicking and slugging") his team in the 2007 Iditarod (Idiotarod).
Mr. Suter was specifically referring to the "much needed equal run/equal rest rule." Iditarod mushers are known for forcing their dogs to run on long sprints with minimal rest, that is happening more and more in the Yukon Quest with mushing heroes/knuckleheads like last year's Quest champ Lance Mackey, who brags about that his dogs will happily take whatever he gives them.
On my site I have not taken a stance about abolishing the use of sled dogs for recreational or 'light competitive racing,' but what right do I have to judge and set limits on how animals, including 'man's best friends,' can be used?
[2008 Quest dogs suffer from frostbitten penises and scrotums]
Wednesday, Feb. 13th article by the only 'actual journalist' covering this race, Ms. Genesee Keevil of Yukon News.
'Trucks leak, but dogs and handlers blister'
CIRCLE, Alaska:
Kelly Griffin’s dog Star has a sack of liquid the size of a large grapefruit hanging from its neck. On Saturday, during the 160-kilometre run from Fairbanks to the first checkpoint at Chena Hot Springs, Star got frostbite. She had collar rub, said Dan Kaduce’s handler and wife Jodi, who is caring for Star.
Some dogs on chains end up wearing the hair away under their collars. With that bare skin exposed at minus-40 degree Celsius temperatures, Star’s neck froze.
“It’s edema, or a fluid-filled sack,” said race vet Jamie Martinez-Salles. The dog is on antibiotics and its lungs and heart sound good, he added. Star was burrowed under an arctic sleeping bag in the back seat of Kaduce’s dog truck on Monday afternoon. Her neck was still enormous, but she was eating well.
When Fairbanks’ rookie Ken Anderson pulled into Circle, he dropped two dogs. One had a sore shoulder; the other had a frostbitten scrotum. “It’s an old frostbite injury,” said Anderson. “I had him neutered so I didn’t think it was an issue, but there was some exposed flesh and it got him.”
Former champ Bill Cotter, who pulled in after Anderson, didn’t have any frostbite issues. He’d also been running in 60-below temperatures heading toward Circle, but had dog coats with flaps that hang in front of the penises.
It helps, said Tagish musher Ed Hopkins, who is handling for his partner Michelle Phillips. “You just need something like that in front of them to break the wind,” he said. A number of mushers use penis warmers to protect their dogs’ genitals. The fleece bands wrap around the dog’s waist and connect with Velcro. But if these aren’t taken off and dried regularly, it gets ugly, said Hopkins. The fleece protectors absorb liquid when the dogs pee and end up freezing to their genitals.
Whitehorse musher Kyla Boivin had a couple males with frostbite, she said, hauling in to Circle late Monday night. “But they’re on the mend,” she said. “The boys can’t help it; they need their skin exposed to do their business.”
“What we really need is Eskimo dogs,” said Hopkins with a laugh. “But they’re too slow.”
Even Mike Ellis, who is running fluffy Siberians, had trouble with frostbite. One of his dogs got a little nip on the end of his penal sheath. The dogs are furry, but there’s not much hair there, said Ellis, who is one of the few mushers who doesn’t want it to get much warmer.
“My dogs were hot coming in here,” he said, slurping chili at a picnic table in the Circle fire hall. "I don’t need it too much warmer, minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit is fine.”
Dawson’s Cor Guimond was toasty. “It’s not cold out,” he said. “When I heard it warmed up two degrees, I knew a warming trend was coming. And when the clouds came in, I knew I was saved. It’s balmy now.”
Alaskan veteran Kelly Griffin was glad it was warming up. “But now we’ll probably get snow belly deep,” she said. “So you have to be careful what you ask for.”
Griffin didn’t think she’d frozen anything. “But I haven’t looked in a mirror yet,” she said. “A couple years ago, I came into Circle with a big scab on my nose and didn’t even know it.” Griffin looked OK, but Hugh Neff’s handler was another story.
Victor Perry frostbit his big toe during the race start in Fairbanks. “It’s so swollen I can’t even wear socks in my boot,” said the Kiwi, standing outside the Circle fire hall. “It was sheer stupidity,” he added. “I just had the wrong footwear.”
Neff’s partner Tamra Reynolds warned Perry that high-tech hiking boots wouldn’t cut it. “We tried giving him boots,” she said. “But he was adamant about wearing them.” And soaking his frozen foot at the Chena Hot Springs didn’t help, said Reynolds. “It took on lots of water.” Perry was sporting big black winter boots in Circle.
“I learned the hard way,” he said with a grin. Perry plans to have his foot checked out once he gets back to Whitehorse.
Humans and dogs weren’t the only frostbite casualties. The Central and Circle parking lots are covered in congealed splotches of oil and paths of transmission fluid that look like the trails of wounded animals. Griffin’s truck quit in Central, and her handler was not dealing with it well. She called locals who offered help a “bunch of drunks.”
Then she barraged Griffin with questions immediately after the weary musher came off Eagle summit. After that, the tall blonde handler — up from New York City — sat in the cold and pouted.
It was frontrunner Dan Kaduce’s wife, Jodi, who managed to find another starter for the truck in Fairbanks and get it flown to Central on Monday. But apparently, the truck is still not working.
Jean-denis Britten’s truck also quit.
“He’s having tranny problems,” said Hopkins.
Britten’s wife is trying to juggle her mother-in-law, who is visiting from Quebec and speaks very little English, her year-old baby boy, Odyland, and deal with the sketchy transmission while getting to the checkpoints on time.
“She’s so quiet, she doesn’t really ask for help,” said Hopkins. “She’s just out there pouring in tranny oil.”
Hopkins also had some truck trouble. After seeing Phillips off at Mile 101, he couldn’t get the door shut, so he gave it a good slam. The window shattered. It was a cold ride over the summit, said Hopkins. “I froze my fingers.”
He ended up taping some plastic over the window, but can’t really see out of it.
Dawson handler and past racer Peter Ledwidge gave Hopkins the tape. Ledwidge is also picking up dogs for Britten, while his wife and family limp back to Fairbanks to get repairs on the truck.
After seeing off mushers at Circle, handlers have to drive all the way back to Fairbanks, on to Whitehorse and then north to Dawson, where they are expected to have camp set up before the mushers arrive.
It’s a haul for the handlers, who get very little sleep, usually only catching the odd wink in idling dog trucks at the checkpoints.
contact gkeevil@yukon-news.com
Wed. Feb. 13th article by Genesee Keevil of Yukon News:
'The world's toughest sled dog race lives up to its slogan'
EAGLE, Alaska:
The Yukon Quest trail vanished when Lance Mackey was roughly 120 kilometres from Eagle. The three-time reigning champ was ahead of the trailbreakers. Contending with jagged, sharp jumble ice two storeys high, and patches of steaming open water, Mackey and his 13 dogs zigzagged across the river trying to find a route in the dark.
“It was a little ridiculous in a race,” he said. “I lost at least one-and-a-half hours.” He had turned around and was on his way back to the last cabin he’d passed on the Kandik River, roughly 16 kilometres away, when the four trailbreakers showed up.
The night before, the trailbreakers had tried to make it to Eagle, but things turned ugly just beyond the Kandik. Already battered and bruised from rolling their machines in some of the worst jumble ice in years, they couldn’t find a way through the next bad section.
“The banks were too high — it was jumble [ice]from one side of the river to the other right up into the willows and there was open steaming water,” said trailbreaker Eric Cosmutto.
In the dark it was impossible to tell what was glare ice and what was water, he added. That’s when they turned back and went to sleep at the public-use cabin on the Kandik.
“We kept looking out to see if we saw a headlamp going by,” said Cosmutto. But none of them saw Mackey.
“When we woke up and saw puppy tracks on the trail, we knew we were in trouble,” he said.
Trying to find a route through the huge shards and ledges of ice with Mackey on his tail, Cosmutto dropped into a six-metre trough and started running his snowmachine along the bottom. That’s when he felt the ice move. A nine-metre slab broke off. “I goosed it and jumped up into the jumble,” he said. “And that piece was just sitting there bobbing.”
Right behind him, Mackey jumped on his sled brake. “There was no way I was going that route,” he said, eating pancakes, curried chicken and pasta at the Eagle checkpoint at 2 a.m. on Wednesday.
Although they tried to avoid it, the trailbreakers ended up weaving through jumble ice for almost 20 kilometres. “I was getting cold and tired,” said Mackey. “Then I got in that stuff and I was wide awake and sweating instantly.”
The trail cut back on itself repeatedly, twisting around tight corners that weren’t made for dog teams. “I was going around corners on my side,” said Mackey. “And I wouldn’t even be upright again before I was bouncing off something else.”
It was “morally hard” on the three young dogs in his team. “They’ve never been through something like that — we don’t train in that stuff,” he said. “There were ice cracks out there a whole dog could fall into, easy.”
When it wasn’t chunky ice, crevasses and trenches, there were patches of soft snow that felt like wading through a sandbox.
“And that fine stuff goes right through the booties, so I have lots of dogs with rosy feet,” said Mackey.
His sled also took a beating. “I had to use bailer wire and duct tape to hold the runner on,” he said. And it was hard on the musher, being “bumped and bruised and beat down.” “It was a very demanding run, the kind nobody wants to repeat any time soon,” said Mackey. “And I’m glad I went through it in the daylight, because if I’d been going through in pitch black, I’d probably be getting a plane out of this checkpoint.”
The 64 kilometres of trail to Eagle, after the Trout Creek hospitality cabin, were smooth sailing and Mackey’s team looked OK. “These dogs are strong and will withstand anything I ask them to do. There are just a few wrist injuries.” But it can take some time for injuries to show up, he said. “So I kept them pretty slow coming in here.”
Fairbanks Quest rookie Ken Anderson, who usually races Iditarod, was only 20 minutes behind Mackey coming into Eagle.
“There were cracks and holes out there dogs could get thrown into,” said Anderson, who wasn’t as hungry as Mackey, eating only pancakes and ham in the old Eagle schoolhouse.
Anderson would see these boulders of ice on the trail and think, “That one will put me out of the race, or put one of my dogs out of the race,” he said. “But the sled held up and my dogs are so tough, they just kept going — it was amazing.” Until he hit the jumble ice, Anderson was beginning to question the Quest’s claim to be the toughest sled dog race in the world.
“I thought Eagle Summit was overrated,” he said. But once he was out on the river, “wallowing in the soft snow.” and jumble without many trail markers, things got “a bit freaky. I thought (the trailbreakers) were running out of markers,” he said.
“There weren’t many and I could see where they started using big blocks of ice to mark the trail.” It seems like there wasn’t much preparation, said Anderson. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d come across Lance (Mackey), and the trailbreakers stopped because it was too tough to get through.”
Anderson was glad it wasn’t snowing. “There really weren’t many markers, and we were lucky because there was a fresh trail in front of us, but if there was a storm out there, you’d really be screwed.”
Anderson and Mackey left Eagle one minute apart, just after 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
“It’s starting to look like a race between Lance and me,” said Anderson before turning in for a few hours just after 2 a.m.
Both men were already thinking about the gold awarded to the first musher into Dawson, 236 kilometres away.
“It looks like the teams behind me are falling apart,” said Anderson.
Annie Lake’s Hugh Neff is slowing down with only 10 dogs and one in the sled bag, he said. “And when I passed Brent Sass he had one dog in the bag and another one limping.”
But Mackey doesn’t feel much pressure from Anderson, or anyone else. “The competition’s not pushing me like it has in the past,” he said. Mackey’s more concerned about the trail, or lack of it. “It’s frustrating,” he said. “Maybe those trailbreakers could have started a day earlier.”
Usually, trailbreakers run from Circle to Eagle and vice versa, but in last week’s extreme cold, nobody moved.
“And we got a day behind,” said Mark Backes, who’s been breaking the race trail for more than a decade. He and his crew were already in Central when they got a call from Quest officials to come back to Mile 101 to reopen the route over Eagle Summit after a storm blew in over the mountain and closed the road.
“And we can’t seem to make up time,” he said. “If we try and sleep, they catch you.”
The Alaskan trail is always rough, added Backes. “On this side, the mushers suffer. “It’s ugly.” The trailbreakers are volunteers using their own machines.
Roaring through Eagle, Backes pointed out the shattered hood and the stitches filling his windshield. The $10,000 machines rolled numerous times while the trailbreakers tried to navigate through the jumble ice. Cosmutto actually broke the trailing arm off one of his skis and had to bolt it back together using angle iron.
Although they’re bumped and bruised, and have smashed up their machines, Backes was happy. “It’s better than sitting home and watching TV,” he said.
The trail out of Eagle, over 1,026-metre American Summit follows a road, but there is severe glaciation. Former Quest musher Wayne Hall, who lives in Eagle, was briefing Mackey on the glaciers early Wednesday morning.
The first glacier, about five kilometres out, isn’t too bad, he said. If mushers start to slide, there’s a lip that should catch them. The next, five kilometres further, has spruce poles that Hall placed in it to stop sleds from sliding down the sloping glacier and careening into the valley below.
But the third glacier, 16 kilometres out, is bad, said Hall. There is a small lip that should catch sliding teams, “but if you miss that, you’re dropping 100 feet.”
Sass arrived in Eagle at 4:24 a.m. about four-and-a-half hours after Mackey.
Tagish musher Michelle Phillips was half an hour behind him, followed one minute later by Neff. Dave Dalton came in at 6:12 a.m.
contact gkeevil@yukon-news.com
Alice,
I can tell this discussion is going nowhere, but I’ll write one more response.
If the Iditarod and Quest were not “grueling” and extremely competitive to the point of dogs’ health and safety being in danger, it would not attract the national attention it does. Your insistence that these events are not a big deal from an endurance standpoint (e.g. “the dogs generally come into the finish tired but otherwise okay”) completely contradicts the bravado that the “mushers” and the race promoters display when they talk about how amazing it is that the dogs are actually able to do this. Alice, I’m not sure if you’re attempting to deceive us or if you’re genuinely self-deceived, but basic common sense combined with what the human participants and race promoters say, leave me to believe without a reasonable doubt that you are completely wrong. The Quest and Iditarod is HELL for most of the dogs.
About the “happy Iditarod dogs”, surely you have so not-so-great tales from the dark side? We all know that some of these dogs die from the distance and weather conditions. The only thing your tales tell me is how much you want to believe that the Iditarod is not a cruelty-fest – pure denial of the nasty side of extreme competition. I would imagine, if dog fighting were not illegal in almost all states, that people defending dog fighting would point to a few “happy fighters” who showed no signs of serious distress, except perhaps a scar here and there. But what’s the big deal about a scar here or there? That’s essentially you’re argument for the Iditarod.
Even if the Iditarod wasn’t quite a cruel as it is (let’s say the dogs ran one third of the distance they do now in response to appropriate public outrage over the current abuse), I’d still oppose it just as strongly. Competition among *consenting* normal adult humans, no matter how harsh, is something that is their choice to participate in and I have no opinion one way or another about such competition. Consenting normal adult humans can do with their life whatever they want to, including ending it, and you won’t hear a peep out of me. BUT, when you involve innocent children or nonhuman beings in competition, who are inherently vulnerable to severe exploitation, and especially when that competition pays, and even more so when it pays significantly (like $200,000 to the winner), that’s when you’re doing something seriously immoral. There are only trivial differences between dog fighting and the Iditarod.
Unless you say something significantly more meaningful in this discussion than you have so far, I’m finished here. There are times when someone argues such absurd claims that further discussion makes no sense.
Dan,
My opinions about the Iditarod and Quest come from meeting, talking to and hanging around with those (both human and canine) who have run the races and/or are training to run them, as well as intense research. I don’t know what your personal experience in the sled dog world is but what you see is not what I have experienced. The “not-so-great” tales I have are third-hand and have nothing to do with the Iditarod or Quest (I know someone who knows someone whose sister says she saw a sprint musher, whose name I never got cruelly hit a dog).
Yes, like everyone else, I heard about Brooks in the 2007 Iditarod. I don’t know Brooks but quite a few of the mushers whom I do know are NOT happy with how he treated his dogs and believe he should have received more severe punishment (again, getting close to the abolition issue here ie. does one musher who mistreats his sled dogs justify a ban of sled dog racing/ does one pet owner who mistreats his dogs justify the end of pets? I’m not going there right now, although I may at some future point). I have seen some abused sled dogs who were rescued from non-Iditarod/Quest mushers and they show definite signs of mistreatment – not physically but in their behavior. However I have NEVER seen this behavior in an Iditarod or Quest dog who wasn’t rescued from somewhere else prior to his distance racing life. The “few happy dogs” make up the majority of the dogs I have met. I could write about all of them but it would make all of this much longer than it already is.
I have one other thing. I hesitate to even bring it up for a variety of reasons (including bad memories of the worst day of my life) but I think I will mention in briefly. My first sled dog was a recreational pet. She never competed and she never ran more than a few miles at a time and it was never strenuous. Several summers ago, when she was five and a half, I went to bring her inside as I did every day and she ran up a flight of stairs to the house, which she did every day. Only on this day she collapsed and died while running up the stairs. Instantly. There was no warning, nothing different in her behavior to signal a problem. My vet believes she died of an aneurysm and that, had she been in his office, there was nothing anyone could have done. It’s not just in distance sled dog races that this has happened.
I don’t expect you to change your stance and am not asking you to do so. In fact, I’d be disappointed if you did – nobody should blindly believe one source or side. I do hope that you will read what I’ve written and consider it, just as I have done for what you, Mary, Terry and Mike have written. Yes, I AM listening and you ALL have brought up some very valid points that most certainly should be considered.
Nothing is black and white.
Signing out for now,
Alice
So much of this discussion has focused on the treatment that the dogs receive (i.e., animal welfare) which deviates from the essential question: Do we have the right, morally, to bring these living, breathing, feeling creatures into the world for the sole purpose of amusing us? It could be dog sledding, dog racing, dog showing, dog fighting, cock fighting, circus tricks, carriage riding, dining, whatever. It is wrong.
YES, YES, PATTY! And it does certainly get a bit circular. I'm astounded that anyone ever even tries to defend these two particular events. They are such extreme examples of cruelty that it shocks me that governments support them. They also support slaughterhouses, but they're not for FUN!
I don't care how many vets or mushers testify that the dogs are having a grand ol' time. Breeding dogs for our use is simply, as you say, wrong.
I agree entirely, Patty. The most significant difference between dogs skiing with me and dogs pulling sleds is that when dogs ski with me, they are out there solely for their own benefit (in fact, if anything, they are in my way, not helping me), but when dogs pull sleds, it is for solely for human entertainment, regardless of what effects it has on the dogs.