Today we went to Martin Buser’s Happy Trails Kennel and Iditarod dog training facility. He usually owns about 90 dogs. From this he gets about 16 dogs that he uses to compete in the Iditarod. He has won this the race several times, and holds the record for completing the race in the shortest amount of time (just under 9 full days). He and I were talking prior to the tour and he gave me some interesting info. First place in the Iditarod pays around $50,000 to $70,000, depending on the number of participants. Second place is around $15,000. The entrance fee is $4,000. The prize money is hardly enough to keep the kennel running. He also gets money from sponsors, and earns some from giving these tours of his facility. When people take a cruise to Alaska, one of the side trips they can take is to have a dog team pull them on a glacier. Martin leases some of his dogs out for this purpose during the cruising season. He also travels around giving motivational speeches to corporations.
During the tour he mentioned that the Iditarod committee wanted the mushers to install GPS trackers on their sleds so that fans could track the progress of each team online. At one checkpoint he ran into a pilot friend of his, so he gave the pilot the tracking device. This caused the website to crash because everyone was logging in to find out why Martin Buser was now traveling 125 miles per hour in the wrong direction. The one picture shows Martin accepting his first place check while his lead dog is peeing on the trophy. He said he didn’t mind. The check was his and the trophy belonged to the dog.
On the way back I took a picture of what was reported to be Sarah Palin’s floatplane. I’ll assume this is true until someone proves me wrong.
During the tour he mentioned that the Iditarod committee wanted the mushers to install GPS trackers on their sleds so that fans could track the progress of each team online. At one checkpoint he ran into a pilot friend of his, so he gave the pilot the tracking device. This caused the website to crash because everyone was logging in to find out why Martin Buser was now traveling 125 miles per hour in the wrong direction. The one picture shows Martin accepting his first place check while his lead dog is peeing on the trophy. He said he didn’t mind. The check was his and the trophy belonged to the dog.
On the way back I took a picture of what was reported to be Sarah Palin’s floatplane. I’ll assume this is true until someone proves me wrong.
If Martin Buser genuinely cared about his dogs he wouldn't put them at terrible risk my racing them in the Iditarod. His dog Stafford died in the Iditarod from a ruptured blood vessel. 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.
ReplyDeleteDuring 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, http://www.helpsleddogs.org