Re: Sled Dog Race, Iditarod, is less than a week away

"Melinda Shore" <shore@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:du1d7s$90d$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <b2e83$4403d00c$94402b1b$24537@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,

Siberian Huskies are actually pretty uncommon in these
races. There were none in Quest that just finished and
there's one team out of, I think, 44 in the Iditarod that's
starting this weekend. Almost everybody uses Alaskan
Huskies which have been bred not just for sledding, but for
particular races. But anyway, the conventional wisdom is
that a sleddog can pull twice his weight.

That's pretty much the "conventional wisdom" for most breeds, afaik - that
they should be able to pull about twice their weight. And I've seen dogs
pull way more than their weight in pulling contests, sledges on grass. One
of my 45-pounders moved well in excess of 600 lbs once.

I've been out
with three dogs when they've been able to take the sled
airborne over a mogul (goin' Iron Will!).

How much sleep and rest do the dogs
get?

Typically they get from 1:1 run/rest to 1:2 run/rest. Most
of the people in the race are just in it to finish. The
people who want to win aren't stupid and don't want to
exhaust their dogs.

So the quotes on the anti-Iditarod site, which have cites, about mushers
racing their dogs 12-14 hours and not stopping at checkpoints are
fabricated? I don't know, Melinda - I'm asking. Are they fabricated?

How often are they actually checked by the vets, and what's done at
those checks?

Before the race every dog gets an EKG and a blood test and a
urine test (to check for drugs). Each musher is required to
carry a veterinary notebook and present it at each
checkpoint, so the vets can see the history of the dogs in
the race. There are checkpoints every 100 miles or so and
every dog is checked at every checkpoint by a veterinarian.
They use a procedure they call "HAWL": H for hearts and
hydration, A for appetite and attitude, W for weight, and L
for lungs. They also check feet very carefully.

I thought the mushers weren't required to stop long enough at checkpoints
for a vet check of their dogs, and I may have missed it but I don't see it
in the official rules. It sounds more like it's self-policed. Might not be
such a great idea for the mushers to be in charge of whether or not their
dogs are okay when there's money at stake in a race.

There are over 1000 dogs in the Iditarod, afaict. There are enough vets to
check them at each checkpoint? They're required to stop long enough for a
vet check at each checkpoint?

But because it's possible, should it be done? Have races like the Idit
and
the YQ crossed a line from sport to cruelty? I am undecided on this.

It's another situation you're judging without knowing much
about. It's too late for this year, but you might enjoy
going on a dogsledding vacation next year. The woods in
winter are spectacular to start with and I don't know
anybody who's done it who hasn't been awed by the dogs.
Nice article at http://backpacker.com/article/1,2646,10207_P,00.html

We had Sibes and carts 30-something years ago when we lived in the Southwest
high desert. I don't think a dogsledding vacation equates to the Iditarod
any more than my walks through the woods equate to a timed marathon.

Anyway, dogs aren't people. They don't behave like people
and they don't have human physiology.

I merely wonder if the lines are getting blurred between what a dog *can* do
and what they *should* do.

The question is "How
are the dogs *really* doing?" not "Isn't that abusive?"

I'm not able to tell that anyone knows how the dogs are "really doing"
unless they die or become ill during the race. We know their hearts are
beating and they're undrugged some weeks or months before the start of the
race; that's it.

How many dogs start the race compared to how many finish it? That might be
one measure of whether or not the race is abusive.

I wonder, also, if there would be so many excess Huskies if there weren't
races like these :-/.

If I had to guess, given the ratio of sprint mushers to
marathon mushers and the forsale ads I see on the mushing
websites, I'd guess that the majority of unwanted sleddogs
are coming from sprint mushers. And, of course, neither has
anything to do with the unbelievable Siberian Husky
overpopulation problem in the lower 48.

We probably have better stats on the excess Huskies in the Lower 48 because
so many of them end up at shelters and therefore get counted. If unwanted
Huskies are otherwise disposed of, they don't get counted, do they?

flick 100785

Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - shore@xxxxxxxxx

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community.


.

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