With the death of 6-year old sled dog Victor at this year’s Iditarod, animal activists are again calling for the Iditarod to be shut down. On the other side, people say that these dogs are happiest when they are running and are, in fact, bred to run. In addition, the argument goes, there are over 900 dogs competing, and the loss of 1 or 2 dogs over a two week period, is probably no different than in the general population. So, what do you think? Should the Iditarod be stopped because at least one dog dies every year?
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
The race is what these dogs have been bred for for centruies. Yes, dogs may die and that’s awful, but for the most part they are made for it. They have been doing this for centuries and there is no reason we should stop it now. Dog racing, on the other hand, is not why the dogs were bred and should be stopped. Greyhounds were bred to hunt, not be mistreated, overworked, and die.
Sometimes I think that we are getting out of control as far as trying to control everything. I can agree with protecting animals from outright cruelty, but things can happen no matter how much we try to protect them. People get hurt too, are we going to stop every kind of sport activity? What about Football? Players get injured and sometimes die.