ZACHARIAH HUGHES: ‘The Iditarod, the annual thousand-mile sled-dog race across Alaska, starts with something in between a parade, a dog show and a wilderness carnival… Depending on the kind of animal lover you are, the Ceremonial Start of the world’s premier sled-dog race is either a jubilant send-off, or an utterly vulgar celebration of carnage – a moral travesty dragged over the race’s 998 miles of mountains and Arctic sea-ice for two weeks.
In the eyes of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, it is most certainly the latter. They view the race, and the industry underpinning it, as categorically abusive, morally corrupt and a pointless waste of animal life. Though they’ve criticized the event for decades, their tactics are multiplying and intensifying. All of this is putting mushers, race promoters, corporate sponsors, local civic leaders and regular Alaskans on the defensive…
When it comes to damning the Iditarod, PETA is remarkably consistent in their critical lexicon… It’s never called racing, but “forced to race,” or “raced to death.” When enumerating the abysmal conditions dogs are kept there is invariably mention made of the chains that tether them to their boxes. They are forced to “eliminate” in their living space, a hyper-particular construction for pee and poop, one laden with the scientific-sounding sterility. Indoor dogs “share our homes,” they say. The repetitious litany comes across like talking points in a political campaign’. SOURCE…
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