Iditarod claims first dog
A dog in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race died on Saturday -- a 7-year-old male named Zaster, the Associated Press reported.
It was the first dog death in this year's race.
Rookie musher John Stetson left the ailing dog with officials at the Ophir checkpoint early Friday. A necropsy determined aspiration pneumonia as the likely cause of death, according to race officials, who said more tests will be conducted.
Stetson was 60th in the standings. He has since pulled out of the race.
Defending champion Lance Mackey was the first musher out of the Nulato checkpoint Saturday in the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, leaving with a team he said was not running at top form.
"I'm not sure they're going to have what it takes," Mackey said of his 14-dog team before leaving Nulato to head to Kaltag, 42 miles away. "But I'm not giving up. A lot can happen between now and Nome." Mackey said his own dogs were finally responding to medicine for lingering diarrhea.
The Sled Dog Action Coalition says that -- though the race officials have never been forthcoming with statistics -- an estimated 134 dogs have died in the race since it began.
For the latest AP account of the race, click here.
Comments
That website contains a lot of disturbing information. Some of it seems to need weeding-through, but some of it seems disturbingly plausible. As with so many other sports, it seems that when huge money and advertisers become involved, things go dangerously awry. And at that point the sport ceases to be a sport.
I can't help thinking there must be some outer limit to what the dogs can do, and the statistic comparing the race speed records from the present day and past seems to be what tells the tale. It's also true that Northern dogs have traditionally led pretty rough lives. This is still the case in places where the dogs still contribute to subsistence (like certain areas of Greenland).
It would be fascinating to hear from an objective, non-interested veterinarian about all this. It's to be hoped that the Iditarod can be rescued from the "Extreme sports" hype. Otherwise it risks becoming like big-time rodeos--another opportunity to mistreat animals in an arena that's no longer very relevant.
Posted by: Anne | March 10, 2008 4:28 PM