Victory! State Farm Cuts Ties With Cruel Iditarod Following PETA Appeal
State Farm’s one-year sponsorship of the Iditarod has ended. The insurance company severed ties with the deadly race after more than 95,000 PETA supporters contacted executives to urge them to stop sponsoring the event. As thanks, PETA has sent the company a box of vegan chocolates.
State Farm’s announcement comes after five dogs died during just one week of the 2017 Iditarod—and only weeks after Wells Fargo announced an end to its own 29-year sponsorship. More than 150 dogs have died in the race’s history.
As more dogs drop dead on the ice every year, the Iditarod’s dark underbelly is being exposed. PETA applauds State Farm for making the compassionate decision to stop supporting a race that treats sensitive dogs like disposable machines.
In its correspondence with State Farm, PETA noted that dogs bred for racing are left chained up in the snow and may be killed when they don’t make the cut. Those used in the Iditarod are forced to race nearly 1,000 miles in under two weeks through biting winds, blinding snowstorms, subzero temperatures, and treacherous ice. Their feet often become bruised and bloodied, and many dogs pull muscles, incur stress fractures, or are afflicted by diarrhea, dehydration, intestinal viruses, and even deadly catastrophic muscle breakdown.
Like Wells Fargo, Guggenheim Partners also recently confirmed that it no longer sponsors the Iditarod, and many more companies cut ties with the race years ago, including Costco, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Panasonic, Pizza Hut, Rite Aid, and Safeway. PETA is now calling on Liberty Media and others to stop sponsoring the race.
Watch the award-winning new documentary Sled Dogs by director Fern Levitt, which throws back the curtain on the ugly behind-the-scenes cruelty in the dog-sledding industry and is helping to end this deadly race.
What You Can Do
Even though major brands severed ties with the Iditarod years ago, others continue to sponsor this cruelty, and they need to hear from you. Click the button below to join PETA in urging Liberty Media to end its sponsorship of this abusive race, in which dogs are run to their deaths.
