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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GLAMORIZES IDITAROD CRUELTIES !

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GLAMORIZES IDITAROD CRUELTIES !

 

-

<Glickman37

National Geographic to produce Disney's movie

glamorizing Iditarod cruelties

 

From the Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org:

 

National Geographic Films and Avenet-Kerner will be producing Disney's

film " WinterDance, " which will glamorize Iditarod cruelties. Please ask

them not to produce this film. A sample letter and email addresses are

below:

 

John M. Fahey, Jr., CEO

National Geographic

1145 17th Street N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20036-4688

Email: askngs

Email: jfahey

 

 

Jordon Kerner

Avnet-Kerner Co.

3815 Hughes Ave.

Culver City, CA 90232-2715

Phone: 310-838-2500

Jordon Kerner can be reached through the Starbight Foundation.

Email message box: http://www.starbright.org/contact/index.html

 

 

Sample Letter:

 

Dear Mr. Fahey and Mr. Kerner:

 

I understand National Geographic and Avnet-Kerner Company are planning

to produce " WinterDance, " which glorifies the Iditarod dog sled race. I

would like to bring some facts to your attention. This race is

condemned by animal protection groups across the United States.

 

In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150 miles over a grueling

terrain in 9 to 14 days, which is the approximate distance between

Denver and LA. Dog deaths and injuries are common in the race. Jon

Saraceno, sports columnist for USA Today, called the race " Ihurtadog "

and " an outrage. " Please visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition

website http://www.helpsleddogs.org to view

kennel pictures and for more information.

 

The Iditarod violates accepted standards regarding animal cruelty as is

shown by the laws of 38 states and the District of Columbia. These 38

states and the District of Columbia have animal anti-cruelty laws that

say " overdriving " and " overworking " an animal is animal cruelty.

The California law is typical:

 

" 597. Cruelty to animals. (B) Every person who overdrives, overloads,

drives when overloaded, overworks... any animal... is, for every such

offense, guilty of a crime punishable as a misdemeanor or as a felony

or alternatively punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony and by a fine

of not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000). "

 

--Animal Welfare Institute, Animals and Their Legal Rights

 

The dog deaths and injuries in the Iditarod show that these dogs are

" overworked " and " overdriven. " If the Iditarod occurred in any of these

38 states or the District of Columbia, it would be illegal under the

animal cruelty laws. Unfortunately, the State of Alaska's animal

anti-cruelty law does not say that " overdriving " and " overworking "

an animal is animal cruelty.

 

In almost all of the 27 Iditarod races, at least one dog death has

occurred. The first race is reported to have resulted in the deaths of

15 to 19 dogs.

 

In 1997, the Anchorage Daily News reported that " at least 107 (dogs)

have died. " In the three years since that report, seven more dogs have

died in the Iditarod, bringing the grand total of dogs who have died in

the Iditarod to at least 114. There is no official count of dog deaths

available for the race's early years and this count relies only on a

reported number of deaths.

 

Causes of death during the last ten years have included strangulation

in towlines, internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver

injury, heart failure, and pneumonia. " Sudden death " and " external

myopathy, " a condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate

during extreme or prolonged exercise, have also been blamed.

In 1985 a musher kicked his dog to death. The 1975 Iditarod winner,

Jerry Riley, was banned for life in 1990 after being accused of

striking his dog with a snow hook (a large, sharp and heavy metal

claw). In 1996 Rick Swenson's dog died while he mushed his team

through waist-deep water and ice.

 

The race has led to the proliferation of husky dog kennels in Alaska.

In these kennels, many dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have

over 100 dogs and some have as many as 200. None of the kennels is

inspected or supervised by the State of Alaska or by anyone else.

 

It is standard for the dogs to spend their entire lives outside

tethered to metal chains that can be as short as four feet long. In

1997 the United States Department of Agriculture determined that the

tethering of dogs was inhumane and not in the animals' best interests.

The chaining of dogs as a primary means of enclosure is prohibited in

all cases where federal law applies. A dog who is permanently tethered

is forced to urinate and defecate where he sleeps which conflicts

with his natural instinct to eliminate away from his living area.

Being close to his own to his own fecal

material, a dog can easily catch deadly parasitical diseases by

stepping in or sniffing his own waste.

 

In their kennels, the dogs are never given the opportunity to run free

even in a fenced in area. Many of them drink water from hard-to reach

rusty cans that are bolted to their doghouses and are rarely cleaned or

disinfected.

 

Injured and old, arthritic dogs are kept outside in the winter when the

average daily minimum temperatures range from -24 to 15 degrees

Fahrenheit.

 

It is painful for these dogs to be in the intense cold. Some dogs are

never bathed, and nothing is done to help them cool off no matter how

hot it gets in the summer. The only shade they get is inside their

dirty doghouse, or under their doghouse if they are lucky enough to

have one that's raised off the ground.

 

Some kennels have few employees, so that each dog gets little

attention. Mushers believe in " culling " or killing unwanted dogs. Dogs

who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for

any reason, are killed with a shot to the head.

 

Iditarod dogs are unhappy prisoners with no chance of parole. Please do

not produce " WinterDance. "

 

Sincerely,

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