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Dec 4th 2007
wolfmoonsleddog
Southeast
Location: Northwest GA
Time - 11:14am
Temperature: 39 degrees F
Conditions: Sunny with a few high clouds, cold
Forecast: Sunny today, partly cloudy tomorrow, lows in the 30s. (forecasts say snow is possible in the Smokies Wednesday night!)

Two weeks ago I sent an email to Margery Glickman of the Sled Dog Action Coalition requesting an interview for Dog & Sled. Although I disagree with her, I was willing to let her have her say and publish the entire interview in the Spring 2008 issue of Dog & Sled.

As of today, I have received no response.

I guess that is to be expected. I had really hoped I’d hear something though. I have had a little bit of contact with her in the past and, while I questioned some of the content of the Sled Dog Action Coalition website, I have never attacked her.

In the meantime, I came across a really good blog entry on Margery Glickman and her anti-sled dog racing campaign. It was written last October by Kippy, the blog’s author (not to be confused with Kippy the dog!). I have reposted the text of the entry below, with Kippy’s permission.

To see the pictures mentioned in the entry and to read the comments it generated, see the original post.

DID I SAY “OK” TO ANIMAL CRUELTY?

Oct 28, ‘07 3:29 PM




I recently blogged aboutphotographing sled dogs in training. Subsequently, I uploaded one of my photos to Shutterpoint, a site where I sell some of my photography. Within 7 hours of posting my photo, I received not one, not two, but TEN e-mails from Margery Glickman of the Sled Dog Action Coalition, the first subject line reading, “Please don’t hype cruel Iditarod”.

Those of you who’ve read my blogs for a while know exactly how opposed to animal cruelty I am. Her e-mails hit me like a punch in the stomach. I think I literally felt the air sucked out of my lungs.

I responded with, “While I do not appreciate your blasting me with 10 e-mails on this subject, I will be pulling my image off of Shutterpoint until I can read the information you have forwarded and form my own informed opinion.

In the same way that I respect your opinion and position on this matter, I expect you will respect my wishes and stop sending me unsolicited msgs regarding the subject.

Thank you.”

The local newspaper here recently wrote a story about my friend Barb and her training, and the public responsewas less-than-positive. I thought it was the outcry of a bunch of ignorant whack jobs, but after getting these e-mails from Ms. Glickman, I thought I’d better make sure to read through everything, so that I can be sure that I am not the ignorant one. If you click on the “public response” link up there, you’ll be able to read my response to the article and public outcry.

However, I do feel compelled to share some of the information I received from Ms. Glickman, because I do believe that there are people out there who should never be allowed neara dog, much less to train a team for the Iditarod.

Glickman: “It’s a myth that these dogs “love” their job of running. Dogs have an oppositional reflex. Traditional sled dog harnesses tap into this reflex, which is why these dogs pull.”

My response: I have seen these dogs in action. I don’t believe it’s a myth. Different breeds of dogs require different things. Some need to run, some are fine being couch potatoes. Look at the difference between a border collie and a lab. Dogs are like people - they have different needs. Huskies like to run and they like to pull. This is my belief on the matter.

The picture to the right shows Barb’s dogs waiting to get on the harness. As you can see, they’re jumping and howling and yelling. They’re excited. Tails are wagging and faces are smiling and they know that in a few minutes they’re going to get to run.

From Glickman: “They’ve had the hell beaten out of them.” “You don’t just whisper into their ears, ‘OK, stand there until I tell you to run like the devil.’ They understand one thing: a beating. These dogs are beaten into submission the same way elephants are trained for a circus. The mushers will deny it. And you know what? They are all lying.” -USA Today, March 3, 2000 in Jon Saraceno’s column.

My response: No, you don’t just whisper to them to stand there until you tell them to run. That is true. In fact, Barb has to tie her ATV to her truck so that the dogs won’t run off without her when she’s harnessing them up. These dogs are not beaten. They are petted, hugged, stroked, given booties on their feet to protect them .. for this Jon Saraceno to claim that all mushers are lying if they deny beating their dogs into submission, well, that’s the problem I have with some of the animal rights activists out there. I am an animal lover, but I don’t buy into every organization claiming to speak for animal rights. The reason is because I can’t support emotionally-based fanatical statements like that, nor can I support overly vague statements like the following …

“‘Our findings support the hypothesis that strenuous exercise in cold environments can lead to lower airway disease and suggest that racing sled dogs may be a useful naturally occurring animal model of the analogous human disease,’ the authors conclude.” (SOURCE: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 2002:166:878-882.)

Part of the reason I chose to support the ALDF is because their cause is based on facts. They are an organization of lawyers, legal aides, law students and the like, who volunteer their time to make sure that people who abuse animals are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There may be times where they present a situation in a dramatic matter, to elicit financial support, but their material is not filled with hypotheses, suggestions, and “may”, “might”, “can” and “could” language. I mean, if we want to follow that kind of thinking, an asteroid might be heading for the Earth right now and it could wipe out all of humanity tomorrow at 11:27 a.m. PST, which could cause me to hypothesize that I don’t have to bother going into work tomorrow. However, something tells me my boss ain’t gonna buy it.

Did you know that the head of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) believes that we should not even have pets? I just feel like there is a point where we take things too far. Extremes (and extremists) scare me.

Ms. Glickman sent me several e-mails with accounts of racers abusing their dogs. I don’t think I’m going to post them here, but if you are interested in reading about them, please let me know and I’ll be happy to forward the e-mails to you.

I think this is really what I want to say about all of this:

Do people abuse dogs? Sadly, yes. People abuse dogs. It makes me sick to my stomach and I think anyone who abuses an animal should be made to suffer the same abuse.

Does Barb abuse her dogs? Absolutely not. Please believe me when I say I’d know. These dogs are well-adjusted, happy, loving, social animals. They do what they do because they love her and they love to run. When they stop, they don’t sit down. They don’t rest. They only stop pulling because she tells them to stop running. Actually, at one point when I stopped them to take a few pictures, the dogs wanted to run so badly that they were jumping and yipping and howling. I felt bad making them wait, so I turned to run back to the car and Barb hollered out “no running!” I was a bit confused, but when we stopped next she explained that she didn’t want to stress the dogs out. She said she wants them to know that this is fun and relaxing and to not pick up on any tension they might get from my running.

This picture was taken at the end of the run. Barb brought them in to the middle of a big mud puddle, where they could drink, lay down, roll around, play, splash, whatever they wanted. She got off her ATV and forgot to set the brake and what happened? The dogs started to pull again. She had to run back to the ATV, jump on and set the brakes before they took off without her. These are not dogs that are being “coersed” somehow into doing this job. These are dogs that love doing it.

Do some Iditarod mushers abuse their dogs? Absolutely. I believe it 100%. I also believe that some policemen abuse their k-9 dogs, some ranchers abuse their work horses, some people abuse their champion show dogs, and many, many people abuse animals that aren’t “work” animals at all, and many people should not be allowed anywhere near animals … ever.

Is the Iditarod cruel? Well, that’s the question I’ve been struggling with all morning, and I think the answer I’ve come up with is this … no. The Iditarod is a race. The race is not cruel. People who push their dogs beyond their limits, who abuse their dogs and treat them poorly and don’t care about their well-being, who are only interested in winning a race and not in achieving something with the animals that they love … those people are cruel. And they shouldn’t be racing. And the people on the Iditarod Race Committee, who continue to allow admitted abusers of animals back into their race, who support the abuse of these animals by their actions (or lack thereof) … those people are cruel and should, in my opinion, be ousted from their positions.

Ms. Glickman said, in her first e-mail to me, “On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it across the finish line.” I would be very interested to know how many of those dogs don’t cross the finish line because their mushers have decided it would be too dangerous for them to continue. That’s the thing about statistics, y’know? They can be manipulated to suggest anything anyone with a cause might want. I believe Ms. Glickman’s intentions to be of the utmost good, but I also believe that her agenda might cloud her to being able to see that this issue is not an “all or nothing” prospect, and that not all dogs training for or in the Iditarod are abused.

So, that’s my opinion, after reading and researching and turning the subject over and over in my head. I know this blog is really long, but it’s helped me a lot to be able to get this all out. If you’ve read it all and would like to share your opinions, I definitely welcome you to do so .. all I ask is that you keep everything on a respectful level .. attack the issues, not the people. I’ll remove any posts that attack anyone on either side of the debate.

You can check out Kippy’s blog at http://geminaigraphics.multiply.com/journal