Hello, my name is Kayla, and I'm 12 years old. I want to thank you for coming to this wonderful web site so you can learn the truth about the Iditarod dogsled race. The Sled Dog Action Coalition has worked forever to help Iditarod sled dogs, and if those dogs had any idea about their long and hard work, they would bark, yip and howl like you never heard before. I am proud and honored that the Sled Dog Action Coalition is letting me put my thoughts about the Iditarod race on this web site. Take your time and look around this site. There's a lot of factual information about the Iditarod that I bet you didn't know.

I am the next generation, and kids like me have a right to have a brighter and healthier future for this planet, for ourselves and for the animals. I know exactly how the Iditarod sled dogs are really treated, and it's a crime to make dogs overwork themselves like they do in the Iditarod race. But in Alaska they don't protect animals very much.

The Iditarod race is NOTHING like the 1925 Anchorage to Nome diphtheria-serum run. The biggest difference is that the serum run was done to help save innocent children and the Iditarod kills innocent dogs. Back then, half of the serum was taken by train, and then the dogs took turns running in relays for the rest of the 500 or 600 miles, with only a few dogs running more than 100 miles. But in the Iditarod the dogs run 1,150 miles in 9 to 14 days, over terrain that's far more grueling than the terrain found on the serum-run route.

Because of this race and because people want to win it, a lot of husky-dog puppy mills have popped up in Alaska. In these kennels dogs don't have a decent life at all, and honestly, they are treated cruelly. A lot of kennels have over 100 dogs and some have as many as 200 dogs, and they sound just exactly like puppy mills to me.

Most of these dogs spend their entire lives outside, tethered to metal chains that can be as short as four feet long. The USDA Animal Welfare Act states that the tethering of dogs is inhumane and not in the animals' best interest. Doesn't everybody know that the chaining of dogs for most of their lives is cruel to them? Being cruel to animals is not cool these days.

This web site is not against mushing for fun and exercise because that's not the same as running your dogs to death. The Iditarod race not only causes serious injuries to the dogs, but deaths are common, too. There is nothing exciting, glorious or courageous when mushers make their faithful friends run so far and fast in such a hostile environment that they die. Human athletes aren't allowed to take drugs. These poor, innocent sled dogs really shouldn't be given drugs so they can keep running so far and fast!

Surely, deep down in your hearts you must have some compassion for these poor dogs. Instead of being inside a house and getting love and being petted, Iditarod dogs are sad and lonely. People shouldn't even try to glorify deaths and injuries to poor innocent animals. The Iditarod race is really not very popular even though people try to make it popular.

I hope there will be plenty of cameras at the finish line so everybody can see pictures of the sled dogs when they limp across the finish line. I'd like the public to see videos of the dogs the day after the race, too. Let the public see for themselves that the poor sled dogs are innocent victims. My heart aches for them.

I want to be remembered as a kid who cares about the Iditarod dogs. My heart aches knowing that this horrible race is going to happen soon. I cannot imagine that any people are happy about it. If falling to my knees and crying a river of tears would make people stop the Iditarod race ... it will be done.

No Iditarod For Me,

Kayla - aka Little She Wolf Warrior Woman
[email protected]
 
Kayla is a 6th grade honor roll student and a peer mediator. She is the youngest Representative for the North American Indian Children's Organization and the African Children's Fund. When she was just 10 years old, she was featured in a front page article in The Texas City Sun titled, "Power of the Pen," for writing letters to help innocent animals. They published a follow up article with the news that her letter was chosen to be read in court, from boxes of over 5,500 letters, about a dog that was tortured to death. Kayla has been featured in other newspaper articles and in numerous animal friendly newsletters. She has written countless letters to halt animal cruelty and she has received responses from all over the world. Recently, she won a national essay contest sponsored by United Animal Nations and she is looking forward to her letter to the editor opposing the Iditarod being published in Teen Magazine. Kayla wants to be an attorney and a veterinarian.
 

 

Facts | Quotes | Help | News Reports | Dog Care Mushers | Recreational Mushing | Links | Home