AARP Dumps Dog-Sled Promotions After Appeal From PETA

For Immediate Release:
May 9, 2023

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

It’s a fact of life that aging can slow you down, and after hearing from PETA that dogs in the dog-sledding industry deemed too old or not fast enough have been shot, bludgeoned to death, or abandoned to starve, AARP removed dog-sledding excursions from its website and pledged not to promote the cruel activity again. In thanks, PETA is sending the organization delicious dog-shaped vegan chocolates.

“PETA commends AARP for joining the growing list of entities that don’t want their name attached to a blood sport that treats old dogs like dirt,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Anyone who cares about dogs should avoid dog-sledding excursions as if lives depended on it, because they do.”

Many dogs used for tourist sled rides are also forced into races like the deadly Iditarod, in which more than 150 dogs have died. The leading cause of death for dogs in the Iditarod is aspiration pneumonia—caused by inhaling their own vomit—and the race’s official death toll doesn’t include those who were killed simply because they weren’t fast enough or who died during the off-season while chained next to dilapidated boxes or plastic barrels in the bitter cold, a practice exposed in a PETA undercover investigation.

Among the companies that have stopped supporting the dog-sledding industry are Costco, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Pizza Hut, Rite Aid, Safeway, State Farm, and Wells Fargo.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.