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Satanica

Veteran Member
Bold Member!
Hat tip to Sugar Cookie.

Shocking undercover video has emerged revealing the suffering of crippled and injured huskies allegedly left in freezing -2F winds by Alaskan sled dog racers.

The animals are used in the Iditarod Trail sled dog race, an annual event in early March where teams of 14 dogs race 938 miles across Alaska from Anchorage to Nome.

Two winners of the Iditarod race have been accused by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) of mistreating their dogs: Mitch Seavey and John Baker.

Baker told DailyMail.com he 'categorically denied' all PETA's allegations, adding that his alleged and recorded statements were 'cherry-picked from a much broader history, taken out of context or patently false.'

Seavey said none of PETA's allegations were 'verifiable or true'.

'One obviously does not consult ISIS or the Skin Heads on matters of local politics. Similarly, PETA is not a source on the topic of dog sledding, in my opinion,' the musher said.
[....]
according to undercover video shot at the Alaskan kennels of Seavey and 22-time Iditarod competitor Baker, their animals pay a high price to make them winners, it is claimed.

The video of the animals was filmed by a worker at the kennels and passed to animal rights group PETA.

The undercover footage, shot in 2018 and this year, shows huskies crippled from arthritis or spinal problems and allegedly left without veterinary care, forced to drag themselves across the ice and snow.

The huskies, trained to pull sleds in the races, were chained to poles in the cold with only dilapidated, open-faced wooden boxes or plastic barrels for shelter.

Some had run in circles on their short leashes until their paws were raw and bleeding, PETA claims.
[....]
Baker, who won the Iditarod in 2011, was caught on camera admitting that some of the dogs at Team Baker Kennel needed to be 'put out of [their] misery' but refused to let a vet see them in case they concluded 'we're being real hard on 'em,' according to PETA.

PETA claims in one incident Baker watched as a dog harnessed to a truck fell and was dragged along an icy road for more than 500 feet, saying that it would teach the dog to 'reconsider slowing.'

PETA claimed that the sled racer warned not to slow down the sled for a dog who stopped to defecate, telling the undercover worker that it was 'better to have a dead dog' than a 'dog that slows down the team.'

Baker was recorded saying that one of his dogs, Snickers, suffered from painful arthritis even as she led his team to victory in 2011.

Footage showed the Alaskan kept her chained up outdoors continuously next to the frozen sea, where the undercover worker found her limping, isolated, and crying.
12624756-6951447-PETA_recorded_Iditarod_champion_Baker_saying_Birch_should_be_put-a-119_1556213789639.jpg

Another dog, Birch, had suffered a crippling spinal cord injury that left her dragging her back legs. But like Snickers, Baker allegedly left the animal chained up outside.

'For the leaders, if I told them to turn this way and they didn't turn, I was heading up there, and I wasn't going up there to pet them,' Baker told the worker while being recorded by a hidden camera.

'I was going up there to let them know that 'Listen, you son of a bitch… I say turn, you turn.'

PETA told DailyMail.com that two dogs at Seavey's kennel were also dragged along the ground when they collapsed while pulling the sled.

The activist group said one died and the other was left urinating blood.

Captain, one of the sled dogs at Seavey's kennel, managed by 2019 Iditarod musher Ryan Santiago, received no veterinary care for the open, infected wounds that he had sustained from the chafing of his collar as he pulled on the chain, according to PETA.
[....]
Seavey said that at the end of a race, one of his dogs, Bug, was 'bleeding quite a bit' from a paw, and a worker said that the dogs' feet were 'chewed up' and 'hamburgered.'

According to the dog racer, the dogs would run through saltwater despite the open wounds on their paws, PETA asserts.

'It probably stings like crazy,' he told the undercover worker.
12624750-6951447-Photos_released_by_PETA_claim_to_show_a_dog_with_paw_injuries_at-a-124_1556213789671.jpg

[....]
Seavey told the PETA activist that several of his dogs had suffered from diarrhea during the race to Nome, Alaska last month, but that he'd continued to run them.

Pilot, the lead dog on Seavey's winning team in 2017, was dropped from the race in 2018 because of a tendon injury.

Seavey ran him again in 2019, but dropped him again for the same tendon injury.

PETA claimed Pilot was shipped back to the kennel, where he was chained up outside and not given any veterinarian care.

The Iditarod has been previously hit by scandals for poor treatment of huskies, including one dog which died after choking on her own vomit.

After an outcry from animal rights activists last year, the Iditarod imposed a new rule that would disqualify a musher if one of their dogs died, unless the death was 'caused solely by unforeseeable, external forces.'

'I just think it is very important for the Iditarod to demonstrate that dog deaths are not acceptable,' Stan Foo, an Iditarod Trail Committee board member, told Alaskan paper the Anchorage Daily News.

Musher Richie Beattie fell foul of the rule at this year's Iditarod last month when one of his dogs died of pneumonia.

Five-year-old Oshi made the 1,000 mile trek but was diagnosed with the illness in a post-race checkup.
[....]
Baker told DailyMail.com he 'categorically denied' all PETA's allegations, adding that his alleged and recorded statements were 'cherry-picked from a much broader history, taken out of context or patently false.'

'The mistreatment I am accused of is alleged to have happened in November of 2018, yet at no point was any complaint raised,' Baker said. 'We look forward to a full and fair investigation into PETA's allegations.'

Seavey said none of PETA's allegations were 'verifiable or true'.

'One obviously does not consult ISIS or the Skin Heads on matters of local politics. Similarly, PETA is not a source on the topic of dog sledding, in my opinion,' the musher said.

'Given they have harassed me and other dog mushers for as long as memory serves, their recent fund raising attempts at my expense should be ignored.'
Seavey said the allegations were an attempt by the animal rights group to 'gain publicity, raise money, and bolster their dubious reputation at the expense of my sport.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...e-champions-alleged-mistreatment-huskies.html
 
I don't trust PETA.
While I am fully with you on the not trusting PETA front, I will admit that sled dogs and particularly the Iditarod are very very tough competition with a lot of inhumane treatment from some participants. I do believe there needs to be better enforcement and follow up on the conditions of the dogs if they are to continue doing this. Honestly though I have to say I just don't see the necessity in this event.
 

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