Gothamist: Will the Idiotarod Be Busted?

B-Dog

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 20:24:23 -0500

Oh yeah... Vic WAS being ironical. My bad. Please come dressed as a sexy cop.

evamn

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 18:06:20 -0500

I remember going to the annual Omak Stampede and Suicide Race when I was a kid. It was a beautiful example of sweat, tears and adrenalin of trained, experienced riders and horses barreling down a cliff at breakneck speed to plunge into the depths of the Omak River. I am going to spectate the Idiotrod race with the same enthusiasm. The more blood, sweat, tears and sheer idotacy the better. Go Humans!! Free the oppressed repressed!

trollette

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:16:16 -0500

this blog asks for trolling.

tien

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:15:14 -0500

seriously, who could read such a long comment. why not a "look here for the abuses of slead dogs" comment.

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:07:18 -0500

what were the charges on teh No Pants people? boxer shorts are no more revealing than anything you see on the F train in July.

Emilio

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 17:03:48 -0500

I think Vic is being sarcastic, no? Perhaps being a bit "ironical" in light of Amol's comments?

Christian

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 16:18:09 -0500

How about a round of applause for Jeff Stark? There is no other stranger that I've never met that brings me such personal joy and randomness every Friday afternoon. I heart Nonsense New York and everything it stands for. Jeff: HIGH FIVE

Benjamin

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:39:59 -0500

It's funny that the anti-Iditarod folks have their base in Miami. I bet you see a lot of sled dogs down there, eh?

red

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:31:38 -0500

Vic and Amol, why do you bother getting up in the morning? Your frustrated existence can't be worth it.

joe

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:19:58 -0500

Wow, apparently there's an advocate for everything. The poor sled dogs...

Margery Glickman

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:11:02 -0500

While the Idiotarod is fun for people, the Alaskan Iditarod dog sled race is definitely torture for dogs. The Iditarod sled dog race has a long, well-documented history of dog deaths, illnesses and injuries. In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run 1,150 miles, which is the approximate distance between New York City and Miami, Florida, over a grueling terrain in 8 to 15 days. Dog deaths and injuries are common in the race. USA Today sports columnist Jon Saraceno called the Iditarod "a travesty of grueling proportions" and "Ihurtadog." Fox sportscaster Jim Rome called it "I-killed-a-dog." Orlando Sentinel sports columnist George Diaz said the race is "a barbaric ritual" and "an illegal sweatshop for dogs." USA Today business columnist Bruce Horovitz said the race is a "public-relations minefield." The Sled Dog Action Coalition (SDAC) was founded in 1999 to educate America about the exploitation of sled dogs in Alaska's annual Iditarod dog sled race. The SDAC and its efforts to educate people about the brutalities associated with the Iditarod was profiled in USA Today and in the Miami Herald. I am emailing copies of these and other articles. Please visit the SDAC website http://www.helpsleddogs.org to see pictures, and for more information. Be sure to read the quotes on helpsleddogs.org/remarks.htm and on all the quote pages that link to it. Links can be found in the drop box at the top and at the bottom of the page. All of the material on the site is true and verifiable. Iditarod dogs are simply not the invincible animals race officials portray. Here's a short list of what happens to the dogs during the race: death, paralysis, penile frostbite, bleeding ulcers, broken bones, pneumonia, torn muscles and tendons, diarrhea, vomiting, hypothermia, fur loss, broken teeth, viral diseases, torn footpads, ruptured discs, sprains and lung damage. At least 126 dogs have died in the Iditarod. There is no official count of dog deaths available for the race's early years. In "WinterDance: the Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod," a nonfiction book, Gary Paulsen describes witnessing an Iditarod musher brutally kicking a dog to death during the race. He wrote, "All the time he was kicking the dog. Not with the imprecision of anger, the kicks, not kicks to match his rage but aimed, clinical vicious kicks. Kicks meant to hurt deeply, to cause serious injury. Kicks meant to kill." Causes of death have also included strangulation in towlines, internal hemorrhaging after being gouged by a sled, liver injury, heart failure, and pneumonia. "Sudden death" and "external myopathy," a fatal condition in which a dog's muscles and organs deteriorate during extreme or prolonged exercise, have also occurred. The 1976 Iditarod winner, Jerry Riley, was accused of striking his dog with a snow hook (a large, sharp and heavy metal claw). In 1996, one of Rick Swenson's dogs died while he mushed his team through waist-deep water and ice. The Iditarod Trail Committee banned both mushers from the race but later reinstated them. In many states these incidents would be considered animal cruelty. Swenson is now on the Iditarod Board of Directors. In the 2001 Iditarod, a sick dog was sent to a prison to be cared for by inmates and received no veterinary care. He was chained up in the cold and died. Another dog died by suffocating on his own vomit. No one knows how many dogs die in training or after the race each year. On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it across the finish line. According to a report published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, of those who do cross, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who finish the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race. Tom Classen, retired Air Force colonel and Alaskan resident for over 40 years, tells us that the dogs are beaten into submission: "They've had the hell beaten out of them." "You don't just whisper into their ears, ‘OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the devil.' They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying." -USA Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno's column Beatings and whippings are common. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "I heard one highly respected [sled dog] driver once state that "‘Alaskans like the kind of dog they can beat on.'" "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...A whip is a very humane training tool." Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted dogs, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged or clubbed to death. "On-going cruelty is the law of many dog lots. Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses....." wrote Alaskan Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper (March, 2000). Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 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." Iditarod administrators promote the race as a commemoration of sled dogs saving the children of Nome by bringing diphtheria serum from Anchorage in 1925. However, the co-founder of the Iditarod, Dorothy Page, said the race was not established to honor the sled drivers and dogs who carried the serum. In fact, 600 miles of this serum run was done by train and the other half was done by dogs running in relays, with no dog running over 100 miles. This isn't anything like the Iditarod. The race has led to the proliferation of horrific dog kennels in which the dogs are treated very cruelly. Many kennels have over 100 dogs and some have as many as 200. 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. Iditarod dogs are prisoners of abuse. Sincerely, Margery Glickman Director Sled Dog Action Coalition, helpsleddogs.org

Mike

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:04:08 -0500

It's not just hipsters who like the Idiotarod. Sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, pinheads, dweebies, wonkers, richies- they all adore it.

B-dog

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:40:23 -0500

Ahh Vic. You're so sad and lonely -- a true anti-"hipster" crusader. I totally think you should come out to the idiotarod tomorrow and bring your own baton. You should dress like a sexy stripper cop, too. I guarantee you'll make friends, and you desperately need friends. But if that doesn't work, you can put your money where your mouth is, give your tired hate a little work-out, and beat down some idiots on your own. Of course, you'll be out numbered, but why should that stop somone as tough as you?

Prick Cop

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:31:41 -0500

Of course they will get busted! Do you actually think New York's Swinest can pass up an opportunity to harass and beat down, harmless people trying to have fun and bring some color to NYC. Why go after dangerous armed criminals when the NYPD can beat down unarmed people and give them trumped up citations to meet their arrest quota for the month. And feel like a powerful person doing it. It is going to be NYPD ego stroke day with every baton wack, and citation. How can you top that? An ego boost and revenue for the city, lawyers and its hospitals. Keep the machine greased. Get out their and bust some heads NYPD. Those harmless crazy bastards deserve it. Because you said so. Now shut the fuck up and put your hands behind your back. How dare you have harmless fun on my watch. You degenerates.

ctodd

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:31:33 -0500

Good luck to JStark and crew tomorrow.

Vic

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 14:05:34 -0500

Yes, let the idiots/morons discuss the terms' subtle difference with the NYPD while they get "batoned" in their stomachs.

yijiytjy

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:42:56 -0500

If all these WaCkY events get busted, the prison system will have its own Vassar-reject sub community - watch them go head to head with the Latin Kingz. "Uhh... hey.. you're totally not being cool" as some dude rams his knee into one of those guy's pristine, unworked backs.

Vic

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:45:11 -0500

"These morons stand in the way of progress for law abiding, upright and uptight NYers." Um, Vic. I believe they are idiots and not morons. Get your facts straight.

ferrerin05

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:24:48 -0500

As long as they are not smoking, not riding bikes and wearing pants, NYPD should not have any problem. At least America is still a free country.

Vic

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:21:58 -0500

I agree with Amol, all these hipster idiots (Critical Mass, No Pants, Idiotarod)should be beaten down, Rodney King style, preferrably with kicks to their heads with a steel toe boot (nothin in there anyway). These morons stand in the way of progress for law abiding, upright and uptight NYers.

Benjamin

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:04:41 -0500

Amol: I see you never had a childhood, went to college, or ever had a little fun in your life, eh? Lighten up, dude, or get off the Internet.

Amol

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 11:56:50 -0500

Lets hope this stupidity isn't tolerated. These clowns need a good pistol-whipping. How about being productive instead?

actually

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 11:41:32 -0500

the route hasn't been published exactly, just the starting point and a vague description of the checkpoints (e.g. "a brooklyn artspace").

donnie

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 11:39:42 -0500

i hope not...last year the cops were right at one of the checkpoints and were real mellow about the whole thing...some of em actually seemed to be enjoying the shenanigans.

zincink

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 11:28:08 -0500

Hopefully it will go on as planned..It is probably lots of fun to watch and participate..