Millennium Hotels to Face Flak Over Iditarod Sponsorship
PETA Protesters Will Chain Themselves to Barrels in Call for Hotel Chain to Cut Ties to Cruel Race
For Immediate Release:
April 22, 2019
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
Millennium Hotels and Resorts, whose hotel in Alaska sponsors the Iditarod, is poised to face protesters on the heels of PETA’s first-ever exposé of dog-sledding operations owned by two Iditarod champions. On Tuesday, a pack of PETA supporters will gather outside the Millennium Times Square New York in midtown Manhattan and chain themselves to plastic barrels just like those that were the only protection that many dogs trained for the Iditarod had from wind chills as low as minus 19 degrees.
When: Tuesday, April 23, 12 noon
Where: Millennium Times Square New York , 145 W. 44th St. (near Broadway), New York
PETA’s exposé also revealed that arthritic, crippled, and injured dogs were denied veterinary care; chained dogs had worn down, raw, and bloody paw pads from frantically running in tight circles around the barrels; dogs were dragged and injured during training; and one was even killed.
“When dogs used in the Iditarod aren’t being raced until their paws bleed and their bodies break down, they’re chained around the clock, only able to run in endless circles with no stimulation, no affection, no warmth, and no love,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “It’s time that Millennium Hotels helped prevent any more dogs from suffering for this race by ending its support of the Iditarod immediately.”
Jack Daniel’s, The Coca-Cola Company, Costco, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Pizza Hut, Rite Aid, Safeway, and Wells Fargo all cut ties with the Iditarod following appeals by PETA.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is a supremacist view of the world. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
