Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Friday, March 20, 2009

4th Dog Dies in Iditarod

I hate blogging about blogs, but LA Unleashed has the rundown so I don't think I can improve on what they have.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a great pity.

What's your opinion about these kinds of races?

March 20, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Ana said...

The jury is still out on the official causes of the dogs' deaths, but the mere fact that it happened four times on one race is worrisome.

I hate to be a killjoy in everything, but I just think that a race is not worth any animal freezing to death, whether it's a human animal or a four-legged animal. Clearly accidents can occur as part of any sport, and there is always some kind of physical suffering and endurance involved. But nothing should die as a result of a mere competition and this sounds like the rigor of the race threatens the health of the animals. These are living beings, not engines that just give out.

I don't know enough to say such races should be banned because I'm sure there are drivers that treat their sled animals as their team members and care for them deeply. But I would definitely look at these races carefully to determine what the safety standards are to determine why this happened and whether there was any individual cruelty involved.

March 21, 2009 at 7:23 PM

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