I am going to take a small gamble today and call the 2009 Iditarod for Lance Mackey.
Unless something happens like he is eaten by the abominable snow man, all his dogs refuse to run any further, or the Bermuda Triangle moves 6000 miles northwest Mackey and team have this one in the bag. He will join a very select group of two others, Susan Butcher 86-88 and Doug Swingley 99-01, to win 3 Iditarod Championships in a row.
Congratulations Mackey and his team of wonderful dogs from The Come Back Kennel. Mackey and team were lead by a dog that is not even 1 1/2 years old. This is truly and amazing feat. It is hard to look at Mackey and not be inspired. He is a wonderful dog trainer, great person, husband, and father.
Great job Lance, I cant wait for the 2010 Iditarod to start and 2009 is not officially over yet.
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For the dogs, the Iditarod is a bottomless pit of suffering. What happens to the dogs during the Iditarod includes death, paralysis, frostbite of the penis and scrotum, bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons and sprains. At least 139 dogs have died in the race. No one knows how many dogs die after this tortuous ordeal or during training. For more facts about the Iditarod, visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website, http://www.helpsleddogs.org .
On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it across the finish line. According to a report published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, of those who do finish, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who complete the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.
Iditarod dog kennels are puppy mills. Mushers breed large numbers of dogs and routinely kill unwanted ones, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, including those who have outlived their usefulness, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged, drowned or clubbed to death. "Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses......" wrote former Iditarod dog handler Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper.
Dog beatings and whippings are common. During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective." "It is a common training device in use among dog mushers..."
Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today, "He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like starving dogs to maintain
their most advantageous racing weight. Skinning them to make mittens.. Or dragging them to their death."
During the race, veterinarians do not give the dogs physical exams at every
checkpoint. Mushers speed through many checkpoints, so the dogs get the briefest visual checks, if that. Instead of pulling sick dogs from the race, veterinarians frequently give them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them running.
Most Iditarod dogs are forced to live at the end of a chain when they aren't hauling people around. It has been reported that dogs who don't make the main team are never taken off-chain. Chained dogs have been attacked by wolves, bears and other animals. Old and arthritic dogs suffer terrible pain in the
blistering cold.
Margery Glickman
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org
You obviously do not know what you are talking about. Mackey started with 16 dogs and finished with 15. You are listening to the bad that happens in the sled dog community. The horror stories you tell are no different than the clowns that fight pitbulls. They are not the norm, they are the exception. I have a 100lb pitbull that slept with my 8 y/o daughter last night, and yes she woke up in one piece.
There are bad in every group of people, Lance Mackey makes his living with his dogs, if he abused them he would not win races like he does.
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