Action Follows Pullout by TSA Over Injuries and Deaths of Dogs in Grueling Event
For Immediate Release:
February 24, 2011
Contact:
David Perle 757-622-7382
New Orleans — PETA has posted an action alert on its website asking visitors to contact New Orleans–based marine support services provider Tidewater and urge it to permanently pull its sponsorship of the cruel Iditarod dogsled race in Alaska. The action comes on the heels of the decision by the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to cancel its plans to spend a reported $85,000 in order to use the event as a recruiting venue. The TSA made the decision to pull its sponsorship after learning from PETA how dogs are forced to run to the point of injury, exhaustion, and death. PETA has also fired off a letter to Tidewater Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey M. Platt urging him to cancel the company's Iditarod sponsorship.
"The Iditarod is 1,150 miles of torment and pain for these dogs," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "Tidewater can use its boats to the breaking point, but to support the injuries and deaths of overworked dogs in the Iditarod every year is a scandal."
The Iditarod is a long, grueling race with documented instances of injuries as well as death from hypothermia, gastric ulcers, and "sled-dog myopathy"—literally being run to death. Typically, dogs are forced to run for many hours with little rest. Their paws become bruised and bloodied and are cut by the ice, and many dogs incur stress fractures or become sick. The Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine published an article about the Iditarod revealing that 61 percent of dogs who were studied exhibited an increased frequency of gastric erosions or ulcers after completing the race. Twenty dogs have died since 2005.
Because of its inherent cruelty, the Iditarod has steadily lost sponsors over the years. Former sponsors include Nestlé, Rite Aid, Panasonic, Safeway, Maxwell House, True Value Hardware, BP Amoco, Sherwin-Williams, Upjohn, Tropicana, Pizza Hut, Costco, Pfizer Pharmacia, and others.
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