The average sled dog is treated much better than the average pet dog. Think about the average pet (not the ones owned by the kind of people who post on these boards!)....the average dog is left in a backyard most of the time, alone, given food and water likely, occasionally taken for a walk. Whatever it was orginally bred for, it likely never gets to do that activity.

Now sled dogs--yes, many of them are kept on chains, but they regularly get taken for long runs, they are never alone, they have tons of other dogs around to socialize with (even if they can't touch), they are fed the absolute best of foods, and they get to do what they were bred to do--what comes naturally and instinctively to them.

Sled dogs are kept on chains for a number of reasons--it saves their energy for pulling, it keeps them confined safely, it eliminates fights and injuries and reduces accidental breedings. I don't keep my sled dogs chained, but if I was a serious competitive musher, I would.

It would be inhumane to run a race like the Iditarod with untrained dogs, but the dogs in that race have trained for months and years to be in the physical shape to handle the demands of the trail.

You can NOT force a dog to pull. No way, no how. A scared dog will not pull. A sled dog pulls because he wants to, because it's fun, because they know how!

On the Iditarod trail, there are 24 vets. Every dog is examined by a vet at every check point. Any sign of illness or injury is treated immediately. A musher who refuses to drop a sick dog is immediately disqualified. Any evidence of dog abuse leads to disqualification and a ban from all other races. Mushers are a tight knit group. Everyone knows how everyone else treats their dogs. Those who are abusive are quickly discovered and isolated.

The dogs that die on the trail, there have been two this year, generally die from Sled Dog Myelopathy. You've heard of incredibly fit humans who suddenly die from heart attacks? Same thing happens to sled dogs occasionally. There is actually a group of vets doing a study right now on the dogs that have died in sled races. They are trying to determine if there is a way to check beforehand for predisposition to this condition and also a way to prevent it. It has been a long time since a dog died because of it's driver's actions or abuse.

24 vets--Not one human doctor. If a musher needs medical assistance they have to quit the race and hope the weather is good enough to get a plane out to Anchorage!