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Features > Iams Helps Mush Sled Dog to Death!
Iams Helps Mush Sled Dog to Death!
To silence outrage from the humane community, Iams decided in 1994 to end its sponsorship support for the
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race—a cruel event that forces dogs to mush a grueling trek of more than 1,000 miles over unforgiving Alaskan terrain, usually in under 14 days (the fastest time being just under 9 days)! For nearly a decade, we’ve been under the impression that Iams was no longer involved with the Iditarod.
However, we've recently uncovered the fact that Eukanuba—the so-called veterinary nutrition arm of Iams—has continued to be an official sponsor for "Team Norway" in Iditarod races, with deadly consequences for the dogs involved!
During the 2004 Iditarod race, Eukanuba sponsored Kjetil Backen of “Team Norway.” Focused on winning the race, Backen pushed his dogs beyond the point of exhaustion, so much so that Takk, Backen’s lead dog, “just sat down and died” a mile out of the checkpoint, according to race marshal Mark Nordman. Al Townshend, head veterinarian at the Unalakleet checkpoint, said, “Sudden death can occur in dogs for a number of reasons … including accidental trauma, ulcer or a dog inhaling [his or her] own vomit.” Backen also dropped one of his dogs, named Blue, at the so-called “Cripple checkpoint” since she had developed tendonitis of the wrist resulting from the strenuous schedule of mushing day after day. Even knowing for a fact that dogs are needlessly injured and killed in Iditarod races, Iams (Eukanuba) has refused to terminate its sponsorship! In fact, Iams proudly sponsors other cruel events along with sled dog races. For instance, as a “major sponsor” of the fur-themed “Le Festival du Voyageur” (“The Festival of the Traveler”)—billed as Western Canada’s largest winter festival—Iams helps celebrate the “joie de vivre [joy of living] of the fur traders”! At this “celebration,” Iams hosts its own inhumane mushing event—the “Iams Voyageur International Sled Dog Classic.” Worse yet, Eukanuba sponsored individual mushers from "Team Norway" (Robert Sorlie and Bjornar Andersen) again at the 2005 Iditarod race, yielding more disastrous results. Sorlie surrendered two dogs at Eagle Island checkpoint, "one with a sore leg and another [who] 'psyched out,' or didn't want to run any more." At the end of the race, Sorlie crossed the finish line with only eight dogs, "having dropped eight sick, sore, or tired dogs at checkpoints along the route." Make no mistake about it—Eukanuba's sponsorship of "Team Norway" directly connects Iams to the deaths and injuries of these dogs and puts the company at fundamental odds with the humane majority who feel that the Iditarod is a cruel and outdated relic that needs to end. Despite the barrage of consumer complaints regarding Iams' involvement in the Iditarod, Iams stubbornly refuses to withdraw support from "Team Norway"—with the bizarre rationalization that it suddenly has a new-found respect for "regional and cultural differences" regarding how dogs are treated. This, of course, is absurd. Cruelty to animals knows no boundaries, and neither should humane objections to it. The bottom line is that cruelty is cruelty, no matter where or by whom it is practiced. Iams and Eukanuba are misleading the public by claiming that they no longer support the Iditarod despite their sponsorship of "Team Norway" in the 2004 and 2005 Iditarod races! In reality, they only care about marketing their names to the cruel dog-racing community, which only survives because of money donated from large companies like Iams. Please don't let more dogs suffer needlessly. You can help countless numbers of animals by making the choice to boycott Iams. Your dollars are your voice in the world of business, and how you choose to spend them matters a great deal, especially with regard to the welfare of innocent animals. Knowing that you won’t buy while animals die, Iams will be forced to take humane stances—ending its sponsorship of Iditarod race participants and stopping all cruel laboratory tests on animals, which are not required by law. Read our letter to Procter & Gamble (Iams' parent company) regarding this important issue. Please e-mail Iams or write to the general manager of the company at the address shown below and let him know that the humane treatment of animals is not for sale and that the company must act humanely or risk losing a great deal of business Dan Rajczak, General Manager |
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Iams Continues Cruel Experiments on Animals
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