Yea for Rachel Scdoris, the Sight Impaired 23 yr. old who races Sled Dogs! Good for you! Sorry you scratched! Its hard. Next year you'll go and you'll beat your time! However, I do recommend getting some Huskies. Huskies are breed for endurance. However, I do understand your dogs are ACE, and have done this before! And, also, others with Huskies have not accomplished what your non-huskies have accomlished.
And Boo for the idiots who think all disabled people should be tarred and feathered and not allowed to do anything.
May they all be sentenced to 1 year of trying to live Blind and another full year in a wheelchair - in Snowy filled Winter (Colorado?), then another full year completely Deaf! Then, let them yell. Oops! My bad! They can't possible do 3 years of that! Why? They wouldn't last 1 day Blind. It would Kill them! And, thats just them trying to navigate around their house. They'd burn themselves to death just trying to pour their coffee in the morning.
I LOVE Sled Dog Racing! I LOVE the Iditarod! I even have a shirt I got from Salvation Army. I LOVE watching about a Sight Impaired Lady who lives her dreams and does NOT take "NO" for an answer. She is the reason why America needs to STOP saying "You can't do it" because WE can! I may not be blind, but I am disabled, and see lots of other people who are disabled and succeed. We just have to do things a little differently - its not that we can't do it. Usually, what we can't do, we can't do because society REFUSES TO LET US DO IT!
I have some brain damage, and mental illness. My brain damage makes hearing interesting for me. I don't always process that I've heard something. Hearing Aids don't help here. :P I have a friend in a wheelchair. I know how hard it is to cross a street in a wheelchair in winter. Have you ever tried to scale a mountain just to cross a street? Its impossible!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
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, website: helpsleddogs.org
I appreciate your post. I have never, and never will support "puppy mills". This is why I refuse to buy a dog from a Pet Store.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Iditarod is very dangerous. Even people can die. What makes it so dangerous is that it is a race. Eskimo's do this for a living - ride sled dogs around while trying to get food.
The solution is to change the rules so that the winner who does not use common sense and does not treat their dogs properly, is banned from winning. This means that if one of their dogs freezes to death, then they can't win. Period. If they don't make sure their dogs have enough food or water, then they can't win. I would gladly support a life time prison sentence for anyone who kills an animal in an unethical fashion. I'd support changing the rules on how one wins the race. However, I could never support banning the race, or banning the use of animals in sports. I just think that common sense should prevail and that those who refuse to use it, should be banned from winning and, quite possibly, imprisoned - especially for those intentionally killing animals. (I'd ban the later for life from any and all sports.)