IDITOROD 2010!

The annual Iditarod is one of the many exciting adventure trips to ponder. Imagine yourself in the back-country of Anchorage Alaska, being pulled along by a well-oiled team of dogs harnessed together participating in what organizers have deemed, “the last great race on earth” You are participating in perhaps the most famous dog sled race of all, the Iditarod (please note the correct spelling) Your goal is to be the first of 71 dogsled teams to traverse the 1,049 miles of freezing temps and wide open wilderness as quickly and safely as possible, in order to arrive at the end of the race in first place. Plan on spending 9-10 days in the frigid conditions.

Wow gets the adrenaline pumping just imaging it. For those not up to the challenge of the Iditarod itself, a ride on a dog sled can still be quite the adventure trip without all of the peril and harshness. Many snowy winter locations advertise dog sled rides as part of their wilderness package.

So what does it take to race the Iditarod? As is the case with most winter sports, you don’t have to be acclimated to the cold or crave the snow of Alaska or any other subzero area to participate in dog sled racing, you just have to love running the dogs.

Just ask rookie musher, Newton Marshall, the first Jamaican Iditarod racer! He leaves the warm 80 degree temperatures of his island home regularly in order to enjoy his passion of running the dogs.

The 26 year old is among 22 rookies participating in the 2010 Iditarod. Although a rookie of the Iditarod Marshall has successfully completed other mushing competitions since his career began in 2005.

Before this year’s Iditarod he finished 13^th in a field of 29 in last year's Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon Territory. The Yukon Quest was 1,000 miles in length.

The Jamaican Way

So how does one from the tiny island of Jamaica race, train, and get sponsoring in order to compete? Taking a page from the Jamaican bobsled team, Marshall comes with financial backing and material support, as well.

The actual dogsled team is made up of rescued strays and “performing dry-land sled dog rides in Ocho Rios”.

Financial support is provided by no other than Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville cafes.

Marshall has also been training with three-time Iditarod winner and defending champion Lance Mackey. Not a bad way to enter your first Iditarod, is it?

He is also using a borrowed kennel pickup which he chains his dogs to.

Newton's entire Iditarod dog team is on loan from Mackey's Comeback Kennel in Fox, Alaska. His lead dog Larry is an Iditarod veteran, and veteran dogs are where Marshall's confidence to reach the finish line depends heavily.

Larry is a 9-year-old Alaskan husky.

Marshall says about Larry, "I have to take care of him for him to take care of me going to Nome, he knows the trail."

Marshall mentally prepares for the race by telling himself,

"Expect the unexpected. This is the big one, you know, the toughest race on Earth.” (Yeah Mon, we know!)

There are still many opposed to this annual event as they say it as an act of cruelty to run the dogs for such distances no matter how much the dogs enjoy the challenge.

Sled dogs may love to run, but does that legitimize sled dog races themselves? The debate is ongoing and websites such as Helpsleddogs.org lists

• Iditarod sponsor and promoters
• Mushers sponsors (such as Jimmy Buffett)

with the hope that the public will oppose such races encouraging others to send them a letter or email to protest their involvement with this event.

The following is a sample Boycott Letter from the organization:

- Sample letter -
(Please personalize the letter.)

BOYCOTT: If you are going to boycott, please mention it in your letter.

Dear Iditarod Supporter:

Please end your organization's support of the Iditarod dog sled race. For the dogs, this event is a bottomless pit of suffering. What happens to the dogs during the Iditarod includes death, paralysis, frostbite (in the places where it hurts the most!), bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons, sprains, torn footpads and anemia. At least 142 dogs have died in the race. No one knows how many dogs die after this tortuous ordeal or during training. For more facts about the Iditarod, visit the Sled Dog Action Coalition website, http://www.helpsleddogs.org .

On average, 52 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it across the finish line. According to a report published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, of those who do finish, 81 percent have lung damage. A report published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine said that 61 percent of the dogs who complete the Iditarod have ulcers versus zero percent pre-race.

During training runs, Iditarod dogs have been killed by moose, snowmachines, and various motor vehicles, including a semi tractor and an ATV. They have died from drowning, heart attacks and being strangled in harnesses. Dogs have also been injured while training. They have been gashed, quilled by porcupines, bitten in dog fights, and had broken bones, and torn muscles and tendons. Most dog deaths and injuries during training aren't even reported.

Iditarod dog kennels are puppy mills. Mushers breed large numbers of dogs and routinely kill unwanted ones, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, including those who have outlived their usefulness, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged, drowned or clubbed to death. "Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses....." wrote former Iditarod dog handler Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper.

Dog beatings and whippings are common. During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective." "It is a common training device in use among dog mushers..."

Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today, "He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight. Skinning them to make mittens. Or dragging them to their death."

During the race, veterinarians do not give the dogs physical exams at every checkpoint. Mushers speed through many checkpoints, so the dogs get the briefest visual checks, if that. Instead of pulling sick dogs from the race, veterinarians frequently give them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them running.

Most Iditarod dogs are forced to live at the end of a chain when they aren't hauling people around. It has been reported that dogs who don't make the main team are never taken off-chain. Chained dogs have been attacked by wolves, bears and other animals. Old and arthritic dogs suffer terrible pain in the blistering cold.

Please end your organization's association with this horrific race.

Sincerely,

In The Meantime

The race of the 2010 Iditarod is already under way and March 16 or 17 should produce yet another winner of this toughest of all races.