PETA relaunches annual campaign claiming Iditarod harms sled dogs

With the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race about to launch, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) -- a longtime race critic -- is emailing national media with its "Iditarod Facts.''

PETA claims dogs "are forced to run an average of more than 100 miles per day" in the race and notes that "at least 23 dogs used in the Iditarod have died since just 2004.''

The PETA press release does not mention that 22 of those deaths came prior to the year 2010, or that the only dog that has died since then perished in a freak accident at a checkpoint after the animal was dropped by a musher and left with volunteers who were supposed to care for it.

The dog was outside in a snowstorm when it became buried in snow and asphyxiated.

After that accident, the Iditarod changed drop dog procedures to provide housing for dogs in weather-hammered checkpoints. No dogs died last year or in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses to the Iditarod and extensive film footage of the race give no indication dogs are "forced to run." The dogs appear to run willingly. Former Iditarod musher Ramy Brooks was accused of trying to force dogs to run by beating them with a thin piece of wood in 2007.

The Iditarod investigated, and Brooks was suspended from the race for two years and placed on probation for three more. He has yet to return to Iditarod.

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Veterinarians who staff all of the checkpoints along the Iditarod Trail say the race is not harmful to dogs. PETA, which has no one on the trail monitoring the race, contends that the race is cruel.

"Every Iditarod means a lifetime of suffering for dogs who may be literally run to death," PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch claimed in the press release. "PETA is calling for this dangerous, cruel race to be canceled permanently, before one more dog suffers a catastrophic breakdown on the trail."

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