Meanwhile, The Last Great Race On Earth continues. Currently, Rohn Buser is chasing his dad Martin between Takotna checkpoint and Ophir. That’s only a 23 mile stretch so one or the other (and Martin left an hour and 15 minutes ahead of his son) should be getting there soon.
The Alaska Dispatch posted an excellent story today about some of the trials and tribulations faced by mushers and their teams on the Iditarod Trail--so far. Titled: A near-death experience for dog in runaway Iditarod Trail team, the stuff they've run into runs from falling asleep and off your sled to collisions with stumps and spruce trees to possible food poisoning to…well, the dog teams are coed and not neutered or spayed so use your imagination but be sure to read all of the article.
3 comments:
I just dropped a cpmment from this post that came from "Unknown" and that railed about the "cruelty" mushers show to their dogs on and off the trail, about how mushers maintain "puppy mills" and "routinely kill unwanted" dogs/puppies. Uknown then directd me to a "Sled Dog Action Coalition" "FOR MORE FACTS"
Every year I get the same type of comments and every year I dispose of them for being 1) anonymous ("Unkown" really?) and 2) illinformed screeds ala something PETA would put out.
I doubt "Unkown" personally knows a mushser or has visited a musher's kennel. Certainly doesn't seem to know a damn thing about the dogs or the people.
Blasted trolls! They have nothing better to do than search the Internet looking for dog sledding stories and then spamming blog writers. I used to get them too, whenever I wrote about dog racing. Personally, I KNOW the dogs love to pull...heck our border collies loved to pull sleds and couldn't wait to get their harnesses on. I much enjoyed this post.
The dogs are bred to run, but there's more than that: they LOVE to run, to compete - and anyone who's ever watched them lining up at the start line knows it. The relationship they display & share with the mushers is not/could not be based on anything other than love.
The idjits who claim that sled dog racing is somehow "cruel" merely display their ignorance.
In other news (smile) I was going to write what you posted about the current status of the Race, but waited until after eating dinner ... and darn, you beat me.
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