The Iditarod has started—and dogs need you.

Dear Friend,

The Iditarod begins today. Sensitive, intelligent dogs have started frantically pulling laden sleds through the ice, snow, and bitter cold of the Alaskan wilderness. For almost two weeks, they'll be forced to run an average of 100 miles a day, every day, in a cruel race that nearly half will never finish because they'll be too exhausted, ill, or injured to go on.

The dogs who are racing in the deadly Iditarod deserve better than being treated like a piece of disposable equipment for an extreme "sport." We need your help to ensure that those in this year's cruel spectacle won't be condemned to suffer again.

Please, give our growing campaign to stop the suffering of dogs and other animals an immediate boost by making a generous gift today. As little as $3 can make a tremendous difference.

More than 150 dogs have died since the Iditarod first began—11 in the last decade alone. Those who don't succumb to exhaustion or the subzero temperatures after this year's race will have nothing to celebrate if they cross the finish line. Even winning the Iditarod won't protect them from future misery.

Snickers was the lead dog when her owner, a longtime Iditarod competitor, won the race in 2011. In a first-of-its-kind exposé released in 2019, a PETA investigator found her limping and suffering from chronic, painful arthritis. Rather than providing Snickers with the veterinary care and comfort that she desperately needed, her owner left the elderly dog chained alone with no shelter, unable to escape the stinging winds blowing off the frozen sea near her.

Widespread neglect and suffering were found throughout both of the kennels that PETA's investigator visited. Dogs were denied veterinary care for painful injuries and kept constantly chained next to dilapidated boxes and plastic barrels in the bitter cold. They were forced to run over 50 miles even when they were exhausted and dehydrated.

Such abuse is so common because, as an Iditarod champion told the investigator after nearly running over a dog who had slowed down to defecate, it's "better to have a dead dog" than a "dog [who] slows down the team."

Your generous gift today will power the work of the PETA campaigners, investigators, and activists who share your determination to stop such cruelty.

This year's death race has started, and we must do all that we can to ensure that no more dogs suffer on the Iditarod Trail.

Since our exposé first made international headlines, we've persuaded huge corporations such as Coca-Cola, State Farm, and Wells Fargo to cut ties with the race, and earlier this week, they were joined by Alaska Airlines, which, after this year's race, will end more than 40 years of support for the Iditarod after hearing from nearly 100,000 PETA supporters.

Now we're ramping up the pressure on holdouts like Chrysler and Millennium Hotels and Resorts with powerful protests to remind them of the dogs who are paying the true price for their sponsorship.

It's horrifying to see loyal dogs suffering so intensely for cruel entertainment, but I know that with your generous support, kind people will prevail.

Kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President