Conquering the Iditarod – with laughter!
March 24, 2010 by Marguerite Orane
Filed under Featured Posts, Practice
Newton Marshall, the first Jamaican to enter the grueling Iditarod dogsled race, rode into Nome in grand style, Jamaican flag flying high to complete the race on Friday March 19. I had watched his progress over the days on Facebook and the Iditarod website. Thanks to GPS and live-streaming technology I was also present at the moment of his historic finish. Tears of joy and pride in this young man freely flowed.
What drives Newton? What kept him going in those long dark nights through the most inhuman conditions of unbelievable cold? His story will be told as the days unfold, but this little snippet by Eppo Erkes, who kept us all up to date on the Facebook group, caught my eye: “His new Inupiaq name Iglaqpaq meaning ‘one who laughs’ has now been shortened to ‘Iggy’”.
I should have known that laughter would play a role in Newton’s success. Every photograph of Newton shows the most open, dazzling smile. His face is an orb of sunshine wherever he is. I don’t know if Newton laughed on the trail. His comments about the race so far speak about how grueling it was, with him thinking that at least one point he was surely going to die. What seems apparent is that no matter what happened out on the trail, when he arrived at checkpoints he was all smiles and laughter!
This is what a winning spirit is all about – no matter the trials and tribulations, to be willing to laugh!
What challenges are you facing in your life today? Whatever they are, just stop for a moment, open your mouth, throw back your head and laugh! You too will conquer your own Iditarod. You too will become Iglagpaq – one who laughs!
It’s shameful that Marshall put dogs at terrible risk by racing them in the Iditarod. He finished the race with 11 dogs. The five dogs other dogs he started with were left at checkpoints because they were too exhausted or too sick to run. Marshall forced the dog Larry to race when he was limping and put extra stress on two dogs by forcing them to run when they were in heat. The Times reported that Marshall fell asleep on his sled while the dogs ran mile after grueling mile.
For the dogs, the Iditarod is a bottomless pit of suffering. Six dogs died in the 2009 Iditarod, including two dogs on Dr. Lou Packer’s team who froze to death in the brutally cold winds. What happens to the dogs during the race includes death, paralysis, frostbite (where it hurts the most!), bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons and sprains. At least 142 dogs have died in the 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. The Iditarod’s chief veterinarian, Stu Nelson, is an employee of the Iditarod Trail Committee. They are the ones who sign his paycheck. So, do you expect that he’s going to say anything negative about the Iditarod?
The Iditarod, with all the evils associated with it, has become a synonym for exploitation. The race imposes torture no dog should be forced to endure.
Margery Glickman
Director
Sled Dog Action Coalition, website: helpsleddogs.org
Margery – Thank you very much for sharing this information. Information is ALWAYS good. As humans, we see things from a very limited perspective. When we are able to open other perspectives and views, then our lives are enriched. As a dog lover, this situation with the treament of racing dogs distresses me. There are lessons to be learned about the price we pay for success and the impact we have on others.
Isn’t it wonderful that we all live in countries where everyone can speak their opinion no matter how ill-informed it might be?
It would seem that Newton leaving dogs at the various checkpoints because they were too exhausted to continue the run, is a very humane approach to the race. Anyway, I’m so glad you choose always to focus on the positive, no matter the experience.
I think so too. The whole story is never told … just pieces and all from someone’s perspective.
I couldn’t agree more with your opinion.