My Journalism in the Digital Age Works: The Iditarod and it's Sled Dogs

This was one of the articles that I wrote in my VHS Class that I really felt the most strong and sure of myself about. It really made my want to make this article the very best it could ever be and have all of the information to be as good as I could possibly make it.

-Alycia

Have you ever truly thought about what happens to sled dogs that pull sleds in the Iditarod? The truth is an ugly one.

According to helpsleddogs.org in 2012, 47% of all the dogs that participating in the Iditarod did not cross the finish line because of many health related reasons. Those health related reasons include sickness, exhaustion, and sometimes even broken bones. 81% of all dogs had some kind of lung damage after participating in the race. A lot of people don’t think twice about these health concerns because they think that the dog racer has several other dogs they can participate with in their future races. In most cases, the dog racer has several other potential dogs that could race with them, but do those people ever think about the dog’s health and how this could affect the rest of their life? No. These dogs are shortening their life each time they race in a race such as the Iditarod because each time they race they are ruining some part of their health (whether it be broken bones or lung damage).

These dogs obviously need to be trained before big races, but did you ever think that the training would also be taxing on their health? According to helpsleddogs.org, training alone causes significant gastrointestinal damage such as developing stomach ulcers (after racing only 100 miles) that could easily kill the dog. Some mushers (dog sled racers) bring their dog in to race not even knowing that the dog has some sort of health related concern. This really worsens the already body taxing race for these dogs with coming into the race with a sickness their owner didn’t even know about.

Some people say that the Iditarod is a good experience for both the musher and their dog. They say it is tons of fun for the musher and for the dog because they say it is a dog’s dream to be able to run their little hearts out. It is a dog’s dream to run their hearts out but I don’t think they would ever think of that dream coming true when the dreadful wind is blowing in their and their health not even become of concern to their apparently great owner. These people don’t seem to know that these dogs’ owners are risking their dog’s life for some race they most likely will never win because of the excessive amount of participants in the race.

Long story short, do not train or race your dogs in sled races because it is risking their life.