what happens to sled dogs when they retire
Infected cervix wounds. Starving newborn puppies. Shivering dogs chained to thin plastic barrels.
These were the conditions shown in a series of spooky photos released in Oct that were taken at a dog kennel endemic by four-time Iditarod champion, Dallas Seavey.
The photos, which were taken by a old employee, showed conditions that were unacceptable to some mushers, vets and handlers involved in Alaska'south sled domestic dog industry. Just they weren't surprising — because such treatment is entirely legal.
Sled dogs are considered livestock, which exempts them from the brute welfare laws that protect household pets. When an beast control officeholder inspected both of Seavey'due south backdrop after the photos surfaced last autumn, he wasn't striking with any violations.
But instead of accepting the current system — which has allowed some mushers to operate glorified breeding mills, provide minimal to no veterinary intendance to sick or injured dogs and even kill dogs who are no longer fit to race — some mushers and animal advocates akin are speaking out.
And in the process, an industry at the courage of the land's identity is under massive pressure to change.
"People can get out into the forest and shoot their dog for whatever reason."
Speeding through the freezing Alaskan wilderness on a dog sled at xiv miles per hour, it'due south not difficult to come across the draws of mushing — and why it has become a sport so popular that thousands flock to Alaska each year to lookout its reigning spectacle: the Iditarod dog sled race.
The 1,000-mile race, which begins on Saturday this year, was founded in 1973 as an outcome to test the endurance of summit mushers and rekindle the then-declining tradition of dog sledding.
Only with the introduction of corporate sponsors, increased prize winnings and more participants, critics of the race say information technology's developed a dark side that allows achieved mushers to submit their dogs to cruelty despite having plenty money — and knowledge — to provide decent care.
One critic is experienced Iditarod musher Zoya DeNure, a quondam model who fell in honey with the sport after meeting a adult female in her habitation country of Wisconsin who had a sprint racing kennel.
"It was amazing to just get on a sled with the dogs and be so free," DeNure told The Dodo. "I worked with a iv-domestic dog team and we'd do little sprint races. Simply I wanted to larn what it was like to be an Iditarod musher."
DeNure moved to Alaska in 2002 to work every bit a handler at a kennel. In that location, her boss taught her the ropes of professionally training and caring for sled dogs for long-distance racing. She said most of her days were spent tending to the dogs — preparing fresh meals, keeping them clean and getting them fix for preparation or exercise sessions.
Just in mushing, according to DeNure, non everyone agrees on how the dogs should be treated.
"One of the virtually important things he showed me was that mushers take to care about their dogs," DeNure said. "We have to put the effort in to build special relationships with them and requite them everything that they need to live comfortably and happily. He always said, 'We're their coach, but nosotros're likewise their friend.'"
DeNure met her hubby, John Schandelmeier, a musher, a year later and they presently founded a kennel of their own. John had already won the famed Yukon Quest twice, and had been racing for xxx years. Their kennel now consists of 55 dogs, many of whom are rescues from other mushers.
Living within the center of the Alaskan canis familiaris sledding customs, DeNure soon realized not anybody had high standards of care for their dogs. Sometimes she heard mushers on the sidelines joke most what they'd do to their dogs who didn't perform well in races.
"The dogs accept no legal protection here," DeNure said. "People can become out into the woods and shoot their dog for whatever reason. Sometimes that might exist injury, sometimes it's considering they're also old to race. They'll make remarks like, 'This guy isn't running so well, we're gonna get rid of him,' equally if he'south a piece of furniture or a machine. And these people are lauded in the public eye."
Although some rescue groups exist for retired sled dogs, such equally The Baronial Foundation for Alaska's Racing Dogs, some mushers choose non to adopt out their dogs. While it'due south unclear where the dogs end upwards, DeNure said it's likely they're killed — or "culled" as some depict it.
This is something that has been happening for decades within the industry, DeNure explained.
"At any given time, some kennels will have 100 dogs and they're all between the ages of two and 7," she said. "And then what happens to the quondam dogs?"
At some kennels, the pressure to produce a successful team comes at the cost of overbreeding. Kennels will breed multiple female dogs throughout the twelvemonth, which gives them a larger pool to cull from once the dogs are old plenty to start training — but also lots of extra puppies.
Many dogs who aren't cut out for racing are killed.
"Performance culling is undoubtedly taking place," DeNure said. "We've had handlers from other kennels interview with usa for a job here and have heard a lot of horror stories. People are traumatized past what they see."
Sebastian Schnuelle is a German-built-in musher who has raced in multiple Iditarods, and currently lives in Alaska with his 15 sled dogs.
Like DeNure, he is critical of mushers who choose their dogs when they are too old or injured to run. It's a musher's responsibility to plan for their dogs' entire life, he said, and non but when information technology will be convenient.
Co-ordinate to Schnuelle, the culling of dogs when they are one-time or injured is a telltale sign of an irresponsible kennel. He puts a focus on planning for his dogs once they don't want to run anymore — so that they tin hands move on to live in a home full-fourth dimension.
"Information technology'southward my obligation to house train my dogs, so when retirement age comes, I can say, 'If y'all take Libby, she won't eat your couch or pee in your house,'" Schnuelle told The Dodo. "Life planning is part of responsible dog buying. A dog who has raced thousands of miles with proper care develops into an incredibly confident, skilful canis familiaris. They make wonderful pets."
"They're but seen equally dogs and nothing else."
Although former sled dogs make slap-up pets, not every musher in Alaska sees them this way — and since the state'south brute intendance laws reflect this, dogs tin can live in squalor.
One-time musher Ashley Keith will never forget how she felt when she got her kickoff glance behind the scenes. Raised in New York, Keith traveled to Alaska in 2003 to work at the kennel of Mitch Seavey — the begetter of the musher who was investigated nether cruelty allegations after the photos of his kennel were released concluding fall.
"I was gonna be trained to one day run his puppy team in the Iditarod," Keith told The Dodo. Just she soon changed her listen when she saw the condition of his dogs. "It was financially and emotionally heartbreaking for me when I realized that it was not something I could support," she said.
At the kennel, Keith remembers there being around 200 dogs — many of whom were puppies and youngsters. All the dogs lived exterior on curt chains attached to arid dog houses. The merely close interaction they had with one another was when they were beingness trained or running a race.
"The dogs had pretty much chewed through the houses from boredom and lack of socialization," Keith said. "The houses were non insulated and didn't provide protection from the air current. A ton of them had exposed nails sticking out of them and none of them had straw inside. It was November and we were in Alaska, so information technology was freezing ... But Mitch told me, 'Their coats are so thick, they don't need information technology.'"
In that location was 1 domestic dog who was conspicuously ill when Keith got there, and since one of her main responsibilities was feeding the dogs, she soon noticed he hadn't eaten for ii or three days. He was never identified by name to her, just Keith named him Frank.
Frank would only walk standing on his tiptoes and appeared to exist having abdominal troubles, Keith said. It was evident he was in hurting, simply with so many other dogs to look after, direction didn't become him any medical aid.
"I urged everyone that he needed to become to the vet," Keith said. "On that third 24-hour interval that Frank didn't eat, Mitch put him in his truck. When he came back, the dog was nowhere to exist seen. He killed him."
After just ii weeks of working at the kennel, Keith quit.
"I wish I could've stayed to expose more than of information technology," Keith said. "Only fifty-fifty and so, it's technically impossible for in that location to be legal violations when the dogs aren't even [legally] protected. They're only seen as dogs and nothing else."
Years later, Jane Stevens, another handler who worked for Mitch Seavey, witnessed him brutally set on a dog just ten days earlier the start of the 2011 Iditarod.
The musher, who was merely after identified as Mitch Seavey, kicked and stomped on the domestic dog with total force, and punched him with airtight fists as the dog lay on the ground. Stevens recalls seeing the domestic dog pulled into the air past his harness and thrown back to the footing repeatedly.
"Personally, I have never witnessed such a violent set on on a living beast before," Stevens wrote in an open up letter, which was published in the Whitehorse Daily Star. "The prototype of that explosion of anger and concrete force of one homo on a smaller animal is burnt to my retentiveness."
She reported information technology to Alaska State Police — merely the other two witnesses there that twenty-four hours were afraid to step forward to provide their own testimony. The matter was never formally addressed past constabulary or the Iditarod Trail Commission (ITC), the body that governs the race.
"You put them on the concatenation and they'll cry for days."
In contempo years, as some mushers come forward to campaign for higher welfare standards, the Iditarod has also faced scrutiny from animal welfare organizations for the living atmospheric condition some dogs face while they're off the trail.
In the 2016 documentary "Sled Dogs," director Fern Levitt explored multiple kennels in Alaska and Canada that continue dogs in conditions less than worthy of man'south all-time friend.
Photographic camera crews visited some of the industry's most notorious offenders, where dogs were shown chained to rough doghouses with very little room to walk or interact with 1 another. Conditions were filthy.
In ane location, a canis familiaris could be seen with his head buried in a rusted metal can fixed to his doghouse, presumably filled with food or water. In some other, an open lot was filled with rows of dogs on brusque bondage as far every bit the heart could see in the center of heavy snowfall — with plastic barrels equally their simply shelter.
To Levitt, the weather were heartbreaking.
"In that location's no logic to thinking that animals are able to survive and thrive at the stop of a chain for their entire lives," she told The Dullard. "At i kennel we visited, the handler actually wanted us to film a puppy being put on a chain for the first time. He said, 'Yous put them on the chain and they'll cry for days.' I know at some bespeak he must have gotten involved with this because he loves dogs. Simply taking a step back and watching that happen makes you really recollect how someone could call up it's OK."
The ITC has a different take. Chas St. George, main operating officer for the ITC, denies the abuse claims made in "Sled Dogs," calling them "unjustified libels" and "grossly irresponsible falsehoods."
He cited Mush with P.R.I.D.Eastward., a program every musher is required to join that outlines welfare standards, equally an example of ITC's delivery to the well-beingness of sled dogs. Critics of the programme say information technology is purely nominal and hasn't been active for years.
"The ITC honors the sled dogs that participate in the Iditarod and takes every pace to ensure the canine athletes are given first-rate care and treated with respect," St. George told The Dodo.
Sled dogs, who are commonly breeds like Alaskan huskies or malamutes, have a clear biological reward over other types of dogs, allowing them to withstand the conditions presented during sled races or sled pulls. During the Iditarod, teams usually race through blizzards with whiteout conditions, subzero temperatures and forceful winds that can cause windchills to reach -100 °F.
Advocates of chaining yr-round argue that the dogs are designed to withstand freezing temperatures and live comfortably outside — but others counter that information technology'southward non a humane practice.
"The mushers who practise this want to say that sled dogs are dissimilar than other dogs, since that allows them to care for them at a lower level," Keith said. "As long equally mushers continue to make these dogs seem like they need less physical and psychological care than what the pet dog lying on the couch needs, the abuse will go along."
While many U.Due south. states have laws that ban chaining dogs, others provide particular guidelines that must be followed (in Michigan, for instance, dogs are merely allowed on a tether if it is at least 3 times the length of their body). But some states don't accept any restrictions at all, including Alaska, Colorado and Minnesota, all 3 of which are home to dog racing or sled canis familiaris tours.
Both DeNure and Schnuelle concatenation their dogs, stating that it is an constructive style to manage a large number of them. But they too say that dogs should be given time abroad from the elements, exercised multiple times per day and kept on long plenty tethers to collaborate with the other dogs. Adequate food and shelter and cleanliness of living quarters are also priorities, they say.
"I ever tell people, nosotros treat our dogs similar family," DeNure said. "We have an indoor dog befouled that holds 42 dogs and each has a spot with hay for them to cozy up for the night. Nosotros as well have a cabin that our handlers stay in, and they accept in another handful of dogs at night."
At Schnuelle's kennel, each dog comes right inside the firm at night to lie on the couch and relax.
During the 24-hour interval, nonetheless, the dogs are tethered — something Keith and Levitt sharply oppose.
"When mushing, y'all have a lifetime delivery to your squad," Keith said. "To me, that means involving them in everyday aspects of your life, not keeping them outside on a chain as a tool to benefit your own finances."
The possessor of a former sled dog herself, Keith argues that chaining frequently sets dogs up for failure in a home setting after a lifetime of running, training and living outdoors — especially when dogs aren't given time off their concatenation to interact with people indoors.
"If the dogs live outside their whole lives and their owner never brings them in, then y'all're dealing with a terrified senior domestic dog who has no idea how to walk on linoleum, climb stairs or deal with noises from a microwave or Television," she explained. "It is really, really hard to find people to rehabilitate these dogs."
"It's like an Iditarod Mafia"
In the 2017 Iditarod, five dogs died — 2 during the race, and three later they crossed the terminate line. The unofficial expiry price since the race's get-go in 1973 tallies at 152.
Eric Jayne, a traveling vet who good in rural Alaska from 1999 to 2009, witnessed mushers racing their dogs when they were sick on multiple occasions — sometimes to the brink of expiry.
"It's so isolated out in the wilderness and the dogs get very exhausted," Jayne told The Dodo. "I've seen many teams shooting out bloody diarrhea — and at that signal, any sane veterinary would say, 'All correct, the race is over.' But not all of them will."
The race'south path passes through remote Alaskan villages that typically don't take access to veterinary care for their animals, so when sick sled dogs accept layovers in these villages, the resident dogs can catch illnesses.
"The notion to allow dehydrated, weak, stumbling dogs with encarmine diarrhea go on on in the race — equally a veterinarian — is insanity," Jayne said. "And so they allow these dogs to be parked next to other [native] dogs in the villages who are left to deal with the backwash after the mushers pack up and leave. My biggest concern has always been the illness."
Since the Iditarod hosts over 50 dog sled teams each twelvemonth, consisting of over 1,000 dogs, the race has a team of veterinarians who are hired specifically to requite wellness checks to dogs and provide vet care in the case of an injury.
They also perform the autopsies of whatever dogs who die during the race — just since they're hired by the Iditarod, Jayne suspects some causes of deaths are not accurately reported.
While some deaths are indeed isolated incidents, others stem from systemic issues — such as carelessness by the people hired to supervise dogs at checkpoints during the race.
During the 2013 race, a v-year-erstwhile dog named Dorado was dropped off at a checkpoint by his musher afterwards he had begun showing testify of exhaustion or injury. Dorado and 30 other dogs were chained out in the cold unsupervised — and the following morning, Dorado was found dead buried under a snowdrift. His necropsy showed he had suffocated under the weight of the snow.
"In that location should be an independent body out-of-state investigating each of the deaths of these dogs," Jayne added.
Keith echoed these sentiments.
"I don't believe the Iditarod can e'er be humane," she said. "I'm not against mushing or racing at all, but I am against this industrialization of the sport."
Last year, for the start time in the race's history, four sled dogs tested positive for the opioid painkiller tramadol, which is banned for use before or during the race.
While the ITC initially kept the musher's identity a secret, it was later appear that the drugged dogs belonged to Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey. He posted a rant on YouTube after the scandal broke, challenge that an animal rights protester must have slipped his dogs the drugs without his cognition in order to undermine him. He has called to not participate in this year's race.
Hundreds of supporters flooded the comments. While some speculated that a competitor could take slipped Seavey's dogs the drug, DeNure and Jayne are skeptical. They say the Iditarod's tepid response shows how untouchable the sport's top racers are.
"No disciplinary activity was taken," DeNure said. "It's prohibited to have dogs test positive in this race, and if it were whatever other sport, Dallas would be banned for life."
Exceptions like this aren't unusual, DeNure and Jayne said. When the photos of neglected dogs at Dallas Seavey'south kennel surfaced last fall, authorities reportedly gave his staff a full day'southward detect before visiting the property to investigate the declared abuse.
When asked, St. George, of the ITC, said the committee had no plans to take a harsher stance on punishing violators of the committee'southward ain anti-drugging regulations in the future. "While it is the responsibleness of the ITC to uncover these findings, it is upward to mushers to ultimately care for their respective canis familiaris teams and if there is cause to doubtable wrongdoing by outside parties, to bring charges or an investigation through local law enforcement," he said.
Since mushing is so ingrained into Alaskan culture, Jayne explained, it can be outright dangerous to speak out against the race or top mushers — and that fear silences people who would otherwise speak out most instances of cruelty or cheating.
"It's nearly suicide to go against the Iditarod in Alaska," he said. "It's like an Iditarod Mafia. Y'all'd exist in physical danger."
In office, that's because the multimillion-dollar race is a huge tourism asset for the country, and it tin exist a financial windfall for the competitors besides. The average musher spends upwards of $15,000 to compete, and the winnings are proportionally high.
In 2017, starting time-place prize winnings for the race tallied in at $75,000 — supported past corporate sponsors like ExxonMobil, Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola.
Last year, the National Humane Education Society wrote an open letter to these sponsors to encourage them to end their fiscal support of the race due to dog deaths and the poor living conditions some dogs are forced to alive in off the trail.
Between the "Sled Dogs" film, cruelty investigations into kennels and last year'south Seavey doping scandal, the pressure level has mounted enough that major companies such as State Farm Insurance and Wells Fargo accept rescinded their sponsorships.
Corruption not unique to Alaska
While Alaska serves as a main mushing hub, the sport is also pop in Europe, throughout Canada and even in some other U.Due south. states such equally Colorado and Montana.
In areas where mushing is popular, a tourism industry often pops upwards providing tours that offering rides through the forest on a domestic dog-pulled sled.
This sector of the mushing community made headlines in Apr 2010 when an employee of a sled domestic dog tour company in British Columbia executed 100 sled dogs — he had reportedly been instructed to do so afterward a downturn in ticket sales following the 2010 Wintertime Olympics in Vancouver.
Robert Fawcett, the general director of Howling Dogs Bout Whistler — and, incidentally, so-vice president of the Mush with P.R.I.D.E welfare programme — shot and stabbed the dogs to decease, reportedly in total view of other dogs who awaited the same fate. They were thrown into an open up grave, and one dog who had been shot but survived the injuries was found crawling among the others days later.
As in the racing industry, the killing of surplus dogs occurs in some touring kennels as well, Levitt said.
The aforementioned year Fawcett notoriously killed the dogs in British Columbia, Levitt visited a kennel in Ontario named Chocpaw Expeditions — where she saw the dogs being kept outside in a dirty field on chains. Many were continuously pacing back and along, which is a common sign of anxiety in stressed animals.
Without a second thought, she asked the possessor if she could take one of the dogs dwelling.
"They said that they had 30 dogs they were near to retire, but if they couldn't get homes for them and so they would be culled," Levitt said.
Levitt went home with nine-yr-old Slater, a male sled dog who had lived his entire life at the kennel on a chain.
"He was afraid of human bear on and didn't know how to play with other dogs," Levitt said. "He was deprived for and so many years. He's the reason my documentary exists."
"It was like no i noticed how bad of conditions these dogs were in."
Expecting a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, Canadian couple Natasha Guerriero and Dylan Blake purchased tickets to go on a sled dog tour late last month at Windrift Adventures, another popular touring company in Ontario.
They had a neat time on the tour — just when they returned to the kennel to visit more of the dogs afterwards the sled ride, their outlook on the experience chop-chop changed.
Over 100 dogs sat chained to rough doghouses in the snow, and their living quarters were covered in feces and urine. Because the chains were so brusk, the dogs had no selection but to sit in their own waste product. Dozens of the dogs were skinny or limping, or had open sores on their bodies.
That's when the couple began filming.
"The dogs were absolutely filthy and went to the bathroom right where they stood," Guerriero told The Dodo. "As nosotros went over to pet them, the guy who worked there said, 'I wouldn't go too close to them; they don't get washed very often.'"
Guerriero and Blake came across a domestic dog who was limping and had an injury on his front end leg, but when they tried to address it with the possessor of the kennel, their concerns were ignored.
"It was like no one noticed how bad of conditions these dogs were in," Blake told The Dodo. "As soon equally me and Natasha saw the injured dog, we yelled back to the owner saying, 'Hey, this one is hurt!' She just told us that he tends to put on a bear witness when people are around for attention and that it was nothing. The dog was clearly in pain and being out in the cold wasn't helping."
The couple continued walking effectually the belongings and noticed that some of the older dogs were kept toward the back. Information technology was clear these dogs didn't go much human interaction, Blake said.
"We were in the back by ourselves and one dog was literally hugging Natasha similar he was a human being," Blake said. "Many of them had their tails downward when we walked up to them. It was clear they wanted dear but were very timid and nervous."
After being contacted by Guerriero and Blake, the Ontario SPCA launched an investigation into the treatment of the dogs at the kennel. As of February 2, the SPCA was establishing care standards for the dogs including insulated shelter and veterinary intendance. It'southward unclear whether the dogs will be seized.
As in Alaska, the chaining and culling of sled dogs is legal in Canada.
"They think we're a agglomeration of tree-huggers because we like our dogs."
Following what had been a year of controversy for the sport, DeNure and her hubby approached the ITC final fall to request that a series of required intendance standards exist put in identify in club for mushers to compete in the race.
"Mushers who are and then-called champions are killing dogs left and right backside the scenes," DeNure said. "Those are the people who are supposed to be leaders inside the sport. This type of stuff has been going on for decades — and they recollect we're a bunch of tree-huggers considering we similar our dogs. We finally approached the ITC and said, 'Y'all've gotta take a stand up.'"
The couple met with race officials for two hours to outline suggestions for kennel standards and recordkeeping procedures they believe would ameliorate regulate the sport and protect the dogs. They discussed things like housing requirements, kennel size, vet intendance requirements and on-site care.
On December 1, 2017, the ITC announced that it was developing the framework for a "Best Care" kennel management program that will be overseen by an informational commission of people within the mushing community, including Schnuelle. The grouping hopes to implement the standards in time for the 2019 race.
According to St. George, of the ITC, this new program is a continuation of Mush With P.R.I.D.E, which was established in 1991. He said the new guidelines will show the public that mushers are already "innovators" in fauna welfare and to "raise awareness that mushers are committed and defended to the well-being of the canine athletes."
"[Our] chief goal in establishing the Best Care kennel management programme is to increase efforts for a standard of excellence where Iditarod mushers have a platform to educate the public on new social normals around animal intendance," he said.
Just others are hoping the new guidelines will manage to reform existing standards, rather than piece of work as a PR initiative.
"I recollect mushers maxim, 'Nosotros need to show people what we practise is good' is not adequate anymore," Schnuelle said. "Nosotros need to alter our ways — and if you're willing to be role of that modify, then nosotros have a future."
Afterwards Keith's harrowing experience at the Alaskan kennel, she got involved with animal rescue in Cortlandt, New York, virtually where she grew upward, and eventually became a state-licensed animal cruelty investigator. She's now involved with the rescue and rehabilitation of sled dogs — and shares her dwelling house with a retired one named Squirrel.
Keith besides founded Humane Mushing, an organisation that advocates for the reform of standard practices within the sledding industry. While many animal welfare organizations call for the abolishment of the sport altogether, Keith advocates for stronger legal protections for the dogs.
"Change needs to come from legislation," Keith said. "So many people don't realize that these things happen and that they're completely legal. We just demand to keep talking about it until it tin can't exist ignored."
While Levitt fears the Iditarod's Best Care plan is only a method to appease the public, DeNure is hopeful that it could get the first step to a new generation of mushing. But fifty-fifty though animal advocates and forrad-looking mushers disagree in some areas in the fight for sled-dog reform, they all believe that serious change is needed — and soon.
"It'south like some people here are 20 years behind," DeNure said. "Domestic dog sledding is nether the microscope correct at present — it'southward time to accept care of your dogs and do the right affair. And not but because the world is watching."
To back up stronger legal protections of sled dogs in Alaska, yous tin sign this petition. To help retired sled dogs find the perfect abode, you tin can make a donation to The August Foundation for Alaska's Racing Dogs.
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Source: https://www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/iditarod-race-sled-dog-cruelty-allegations
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