Mushing: A Sled Dog’s Life
March 27, 2010 by Beth
Filed under Dog Activities and Training
In honor of the 2010 Iditarod which started last week in Anchorage, Alaska, we present A Sled Dog’s Life, written by Sloopy, a 95-pound black and white Alaskan Malamute.
Sled dog race team
A Sled Dog’s Life
Hi! I’m Sloopy. I was born to run in the Iditarod, literally. My parents, Brutus and Angie, were sled dogs themselves and ran in 3 Iditarod races before retiring to have me and my brothers and sisters. While my brothers and sisters were sold to other mushers, I got to stay with my parents and live with a champion sled dog master, Joe.
After I got to be about six months old, Joe started teaching me how to mush. I am a wheel dog, which means that I run closest to the sled. My main job is to pull the sled out of deep snow, so I have to keep myself really strong. In front of me are the team dogs who provide more pulling power, then the swing dogs who steer the sled, and the lead dog who is in charge of us all. My lead dog’s name is Gigi. She’s pretty nice, but kind of bossy.
Last year, I challenged Gigi but she put me back in my place pretty quickly. I learned my lesson – she can be mean when she needs to be. She bit my ear really hard when I thought about jumping on her back to show her I was the boss.
Anyway, back to training. Just about every day, Joe puts me in a padded harness, puts boots on my feet to protect them from ice, and has me pull something. In the beginning, I only pulled a brick, then I graduated to a cement block, then a metal chain, which got heavier as I got stronger. Finally, I was big enough to get hooked onto a sled.
I loved it from day one! Some people say dog racing is cruel to the dogs, and while there are usually casualties in any big race, it’s not because anyone is being mean to us. Dog racing is just a dangerous sport, and accidents happen. Joe is a great master, and he takes really good care of us because he knows he can only win races if he keeps us in prime condition.
Every day, we get two huge meals of sludge. It contains about 50% fat, 35% protein, and 15% carbs. During racing season, Joe feeds us about 8,000 calories a day, but in the off-season, only 800. It’s always kind of hard to get used to the smaller portions when the spring thaw comes, but I do love it in the fall when we get big bowls of the stuff!
We also get to run every day, sometimes pulling the heavy sled, some days without. And at night, we get to sleep in a nice bed of straw. It’s just the right temperature. I have such heavy fur I really don’t want to be inside where it’s too hot, and the straw gives me just the right amount of protection from the cold ground.
Leading up to race day, we start pulling heavier loads and running longer distances. The Iditarod is the grandaddy of them all. This year, we are running the northern route, a total of 1,112 miles. It’s my first Iditarod, although I have run in Yukon Quest. We didn’t do too well because a couple of the dogs on our team tried to run too fast right at the start. They ended up getting too tired by the second checkpoint, so Joe took us out of the race.
Last year, as a warm-up to begin my racing career, Joe took us to Michigan to run in the UP200. It’s only 200 miles, but it was a lot of fun. We came in second. Not too bad, considering that this was the first race for 6 of the 14 dogs on our team.
Well, Joe’s calling so I gotta go. I hope this means it’s time to start the race!
For the dogs, the Iditarod is a bottomless pit of suffering. Six dogs died in the 2009 Iditarod, including two dogs on Dr. Lou Packer’s team who froze to death in the brutally cold winds. What happens to the dogs during the race includes death, paralysis, frostbite (where it hurts the most!), bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons and sprains. At least 142 dogs have died in the race.
During training runs, Iditarod dogs have been killed by moose, snowmachines, and various motor vehicles, including a semi tractor and an ATV. They have died from drowning, heart attacks and being strangled in harnesses. Dogs have also been injured while training. They have been gashed, quilled by porcupines, bitten in dog fights, and had broken bones, and torn muscles and tendons. Most dog deaths and injuries during training aren’t even reported.
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. The Iditarod’s chief veterinarian, Stu Nelson, is an employee of the Iditarod Trail Committee. They are the ones who sign his paycheck. So, do you expect that he’s going to say anything negative about the Iditarod?
The Iditarod, with all the evils associated with it, has become a synonym for exploitation. The race imposes torture no dog should be forced to endure.
Margery Glickman
Director
Sled Dog Action Coalition, website: helpsleddogs.org