Thank you SO much for sharing your exciting trip with us Jodi.
I just love these dogs, and the obvious endurance they have.

Isn't that little pup just adorable??? Were you warm enough your whole time in Alaska?

Great slide show (pretty music, too)!

Another good one Jodi. The photos are great and you did a great job on the video. I'm a fan of your photography.

There has been a lot of controversy over this dog sled race and the breeding and training conditions for this competition. Many sponsors have revoked their sponsorship.

I'm sorry - I just couldn't watch the video.

Jodi...and tally, I happened to catch a portion of a tv show last night that focused on the manditory veterinary care that is given to these dogs, before during and after the race. Examination is focused not only medical condition, but also emotional well being of each dog. I was impressed. Also I have been reading the book, "The Inside of a Dog" and now find myself feeling much less disturbed about the intensity of such a race. I still wouldn't subject my dog to a race like this, but these dogs are in their element and up to the challange.

I understand that the 'mandatory' veterinary care appears adequate, but these are minimum standards and it doesn't address the breeding, raising and training conditions of these dogs prior to the "race".

Dogs die during the race. It is estimated as many as 147 have died since it's inception.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), 5th Avenue Mall (Simon Property Group), Hills Brothers Brand (Nestle), Rite Aid, Carr-Gottstein Foods (Safeway), Maxwell House Brand (Kraft Foods), IDEXX, True Value Hardware, Yupo Corporation, Interbake Foods, Sears, Seagrams, and BP Amoco, NUTRO PET PRODUCTS, Tyson Foods, Hormel, Avis, H.J. Heinz and Ralston Purina, Eddie Bauer, Lands End, Hain-Celestial, Cabela's, Sherwin-Williams, Tropicana (Pepsico), Pizza Hut (Tricon Global Restaurants), Costco, Suiza Foods, Pfizer, Bausch & Lomb, Bank of America, Bank of America, Farmers Insurance, Jimmy Dean Food Company, and Pharmacia & Upjohn, and Brown-Forman have all withdrawn sponsorships.

This is from an aspca website:
"However, there are some facts that never get out to the public concerning this "race". Nobody hears about the animals that die every year. They don't know the conditions these dogs are raised in. Nobody hears about "culling" a practice in which unwanted puppies and older/slower dogs are killed because they aren't useful in making money for the musher.

First of all, the Iditarod is not recreation mushing. Recreational mushing is for fun and exercise and takes the dog's best interests into consideration. Siberian Huskies and mixes love to run and pull. Done in the right way, it is not harmful to the dog, but taking it to an extreme kills and brutalizes the dogs.

The Iditarod race isn't anything like the 1925 Anchorage to Nome run to deliver diptheria serum which it's supposed to "honor". The serum run was to save lives. This race does nothing but provide "entertainment" and make money for a lot of people, from the mushers to the tourist-related businesses.

During the 1925 serum run, the serum was actually moved by train for over half the distance and then by dogs, but in relays with only a few dogs going more than a 100 mile stretch. The Iditarod runs the dogs 1,150 miles in a time of between 9 and 14 days over land that is way more grueling and harsh than what was run for the serum delivery.

Many of the mushers who participate in this brutal race raise their dogs in conditions not unlike what we see in typical "puppy mills". The dogs live in poor conditions and aren't given the human contact that they should have. They spend their entire lives outsides, tied on short metal chains, usually no longer than 3 or 4 feet, attached to stakes. Sometimes a hundred puppies are born in a year, yet some kennels only have around 100 dogs total. Where do the ones who don't "make the cut" as a top sled dog go? Some may be sold, but there is a well-accepted practice called "culling" -- unwanted dogs are killed, as well as older and/or slower dogs.

Proponents claim that the information on some websites opposed to the race are exaggerated. Possible. But writers from USA Today Sports and Fox, among many others, have gone on the record and spoken out about the conditions and the race documenting deaths and abuse.

If you aren't familiar with many of the facts that the public doesn't hear about the Iditarod, or the race in general, visit The Sled Dog Action Coalition Support their work to protect the sled dogs from this horrendous abuse and death."

http://www.hillsidespca.com/iditarod.htm

I'm just sayin'...

Google "iditarod humane" below. There's always 2 sides to a story:

Here is a link that might be useful: Iditarod Humane?

Sorry, forgot the most important link - the Sled Dog Action Coalition website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sled Dog Action Coalition

For the dogs, the Iditarod is a bottomless pit of suffering. What happens to them 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 Iditarod, including two dogs on Dr. Lou Packer's team who froze to death in the brutally cold winds.

During 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 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?

When they aren't hauling people around, the dogs are routinely kept on four foot chains or tethers. It's been reported that dogs who don't make the main teams are never taken off their chains. Because chaining is cruel to dogs, many jurisdictions have banned or severely restricted the practice. For more information about the cruelties of tethering, go to http://www.helpsleddogs.org/remarks-abuseinkennels.htm#chaining .

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.

Sincerely,
Margery Glickman
Director
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org

Here is a link that might be useful: Sled Dog Action Coalition