Originally posted by rebeccarichardson


I guess I have a clearer picture. But as far as S.Husky's[is that the breed?] being "born to run"........ one must still be careful...
.dogs do NOT know their limits...that's OUR job....and somehow I think that may get missed in the heat of a race such as the Iditarod?

Three dogs losing their life during/because of a race is three too many in my book. How about the other ones that were injured and "near death" because they were pushed too hard. ?

I know I'm sounding ignorant and judgemental. I don't mean to be. I'm just a dog lover like you.
It's absolutely our job! Huskies would run til they dropped if they were allowed to. The musher has to recognize when their dogs need a break or a ride. Dogs can and do ride in the sled bag if they need a rest. The vets are there to try and ensure that if the musher misses it, the dog is still helped. I don't think many mushers miss things due to the heat of competition, but I expect some miss things due to their own exhaustion. The race is demanding on it's human competitors too and there are no doctors along the trail!

Three dogs is too many, but there is also no guarentee that those dog wouldn't have died if they were left behind in their dog yard. One died of a previously undiagnosed birth defect, one died of cardiac myeopathy--the same thing that happens to extremely fit humans sometimes. You've heard of runners suffering fatal heart attacks? It happens to sled dogs too. I haven't heard what happened to the last one, but I know that her musher had already dropped her as he said she seemed "off". She was under vet care when she died.

There's no way to tell when a dog's time is up. Last winter I lost a dog who was a mere four years old and up until the day he died, I thought he was perfectly healthy. Literally, he went from healthy to dead in under four hours due to a massive stroke. Just like us, there's no way to know!

NO dogs died in the last two years of the Yukon Quest--I'm a Yukon resident so I'm a bigger fan of the Quest!

Mushing is a way of life for me. It's what I do, it's what my dogs do, it's a large part of how I define myself. I moved here in large part so I could do this. There's alot of bad press out there about mushing. It's easier and gets way better ratings to show the crappy, sensational side of things. The musher who is toiling trying to make end meet and take care of their dogs, well, that's not a news story.

I don't think you sound judgemental. Sounds like you have a fairly open mind about the whole thing. Not everyone is going to agree with any kind of sport that involves animals. or humans for that matter! I'd prefer my husband didnt' play hockey cuz he gets hurt all the time!

Oh, and very few sled dogs are actually Siberian Huskies anymore. Most are crosses mixed with tons of other breeds. The only purebred team in the I-rod this year was my friend, Karen Ramstead. She scratched as her dogs were not handling the warm temperatures very well. This is her website:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/musher/
She rocks and is everything a really great musher should be!