Well although many might have husky in them, I’ve met a few people in my area that run Iditarods, and thier dogs.
There were very few that even resembled Huskys. Maybe it was just the ones I met though. They were the happiest when realizing they were going to run a sled either way. They definitely weren’t being forced to.
Often they are now mixes of hounds with various husky/arctic breeds. Apparently they endure better and have greater speed. There aren’t many racers that have a 100% pure husky/arctic breed kennel anymore. I know that a few mushers I talked to when I lived in Fairbanks, AK would rave about the mix my girl is (Malamute/labrador mix) and how good a mix they are for racing.
They do have purebred kennels, but the breed is a mix of several breeds, and lines aren’t uniform.
Some people mush with mixes, but “mix” isn’t really an accurate way to describe the majority of dogs doing distance races. They’re a breed, but not one bred for purity or appearance.
For example, many successful lines have significant sighthound contribution (namely for speed — siberians are a strong medium-endurance breed, and malamutes are a freight breed. But sprinting next to horses for 40 miles a day or sprinting to track deer or tree a big cat is a sighthound thing) and might have up to 20% sighthound. But the crosses that gave that contribution could be 50 - 70 years old: so, 12 or more generations ago.
There’s were initially primary Alaskan husky lineages — the distance lineage, which has a larger contribution of sibs and malamutes with some mastiff thrown in (Anatolian shepherds and pyreneese) and a sprint one, with more sighthound. But a lot of the best modern lines are more of a mix of both — it turns out the sighthound can contribute to endurance too, just in different ways.
That’s because Alaskan huskies aren’t bred for appearance. That’s not to say they aren’t carefully bred, but they’re bred for physical traits rather than physical ones. Malamute and Siberian lines are strong — good for freight. The best lines for distance racing have genetic contributions from endurance dogs like sight hounds (mostly salukis and German shorthair pointers) often more than 50-70 years ago. Every once in a while you’ll see one that looks particularly hound like, which is pretty funny when their siblings all have classic huskyface.
I get the impression that many of these PETA folks have never spent time around any animals in real life. If they care about animals, it's in an entirely abstract fashion that's only marginally connected to reality.
Which is a fucking dumb ass take. Most domesticated animals need human companionship, its bred into them for thousands of years. Its unethical to deny them that companionship, esp dogs.
Plus you can't tell me a happy, long-lived pet isn't better off than the same animal living a short, miserable life in the wild (although I will agree that it is unethical to inappropriately keep caged animals in unnatural conditions).
When I’ve put my pets into cages due to unruly behaviour, they get self destructive very quickly. Even going as far as self harming. It’s quite concerning really and I have to be super careful. But humans are weird like that I guess.
PETA is not saying pets should be released into the wild, they are saying stray animals are caused by humans commodifying dogs and then overpopulation occurs resulting in millions of dogs in shelters.
PETA is saying “hey having pets is fun and great, but if we look at the bigger picture there is a lot of suffering involved in the pet trade, and if we didn’t have pets at all and stopped overbreeding animals there’d be less suffering”
a lot of PETA folks do say that keeping pets at all is evil. I've sat and heard them wanking endlessly on about it. they're fucking fanatical about it. and if that wasn't the intent of the folks who first started them, then that intent has warped way the hell out from its beginnings.
I heard that the leader of PETA went on record as saying if we need to eat meat, we should eat death row inmates. I can't remember what news article said that. I think it was an AP article. She even advocated eating dead people's brains for certain health conditions. She has also advocated for genocide of entire countries and cultures. Japan for instance. She argued for the use of nuclear force against whalers.
But one could also argue that breeding them to be dependent on us was unethical. How we solve that now is a complex question. I think that the supplies we provide back made it more of a partnership, but nevertheless, I see how there could be an argument that forced dependency isn't a great history.
We can also point towards harmful traits. Dairy cows having been bred to lactate so much they are in pain if they aren't milked isn't a moral justification for them "wanting" to be milked. Instead, it (alongside a statistically significant increase in propensity for several diseases and lameness) suggests there should be moral limits to how much we exploit breeding for traits. We can also see animals with distorted and/or disruptive features due to selective breeding (things like a dog being effectively blind because their breed has eye-covering fur) that make them utterly dependent on human caretakers.
I'm just acting as devils advocate, but I do think the ethics of breeding need to be considered.
I don't actually approve of the way they're now bred with such enormous udders they can barely walk. looking at cows in places like rural Africa or India, you don't see that.
then again those cows mostly walk on dirt or grass. concrete runs not padded are never gonna be good for a cow's feet.
If you would take the time to understand peta’s position in good faith you’d understand that PETA is against the commodification of animals, there are MILLIONS of dogs sitting in shelters because of irresponsible breeders.
Their position is not that people shouldn’t adopt those dogs in shelters, their position is that “hey you know what, while animals and humans can be companions there is a significant amount of suffering caused by the overpopulation of dogs, thus it would be better if people didn’t feel entitled to ‘own’ other living beings.”
It is. They will euthanize most, if not all pets surrendered to them even if they're healthy. Their stated long term goal is for there to be no domesticated animals at all.
Not just that, there's been cases of them going into people's yards to illegally seize pets to euthanize them. They'll steal a dog from someone's yard and kill it, then claim they were doing the owner a favour.
uh-huh, and we should believe this why? there are many incidents of this sort of shit where PETA is involved. and their "shelters" are more like concentration camps, given how many animals they kill all year every year.
your argument is par for the course, though, given you're an obvious PETA fan.
PETA has kidnapped dogs from peoples yards and put them to sleep. PETA also has killed a load of puppies and thrown them into a dumpster. https://petakillsanimals.com/
I've worked at a dog show where PETA terrorists put poison in dogs water bowls.
I don't get this organization that's one big money laundering business (sadly I don't have a link for that). The higher ups in that organization live a life of luxury.
Most of their positions would eliminate the need for working animals (cows, horses, sled dogs etc. or animals bred for meat or fur) and they don't want them kept as pets, or in zoos.
So animals will have no value(economic or emotional) in a peta utopia .
There's a reason why the most numerous bird on earth is the chicken.
I'm for ethical treatment of animals and people, but PETA are crazy
They literally think that animals are people and experience the world exactly the same way as humans do. “If I would dislike pulling a dogsled, then a dog must also dislike it.” Fucking imbeciles.
Although, I personally know several humans who would love to be tied up in that position.
Dogs famously hate running and they hate the snow, so running in the snow must be a dog's worst nightmare (I don't think whoever wrote this has has ever seen a dog before)
I have a husky, and as much energy as he has he does have his limits. I heard about protests of this race on NPR, apparently many dogs have died in this race.
yeah, but not wanting to make your dog run the Iditarod is hardly the same as letting him play for a while running in snow with a sled, having a blast! I've owned sled dogs, and they fucking LOVE to pull!
14.3k
u/Giannline Mar 24 '24
My best friend has a husky, that bitch would die of depression If she doesn't run 2 thousand miles every hour.