But low and behold, I look at the Alaska Dispatch News and what do you have, all these comments from outside Alaska mentioning how cruel it is to "force" dogs to run...or to tether them to their dogs houses.
I even saw the comment: "that it is archaic".
Of course it's archaic!!!--because it is actually hard! And freezing cold! And really crazy! It requires the kind of physical stamina of humans and dogs that lazy lower 48 folks can't even comprehend. Last years race was so difficult (due to low snow conditions) that mushers constantly complained that the dogs would not stop! Humans were dragged over glare ice, sleds were flipped, bones broken--while the wild huskies yipped for joy unharmed !
The silly thing about being anti-Iditarod is that you are literally barking up the wrong tree.
Alaska is the most dog filled state in the USA. I honestly don't even know any friends, neighbors or associates who don't have at least two dogs at home in Alaska. Those without a canine companion are viewed as slightly disturbed. And yet--these same dog owners/lovers are the same people who go out and cheer the Iditarod, support the mushers and enjoy the race! If it was some sort of cruel dog torturing exercise--would the streets of Anchorage be lined with DOG LOVERS--to see the Iditarod dogs off??
Certainly the Iditarod is not perfect, but it's pretty amazing. And I truly wish that all the activists that want to stop it, would focus their misguided efforts on more serious animal problems. Like the culling of wolves in Alaska for crying out loud! These are the dog's genetic aunts and uncles--yet they are shot at, hunted and trapped! Or why is the dog's other "cousin"--the coyote-- so hated in the Lower 48 ? Everyone wants to kill the poor coyote whenever he proudly prances off with a house cat...Why is a domestic animal considered more sacred than a wild one? That is something I will never comprehend.
