Philadelphia Auto Show Faces Car-Smash Protest Over Chrysler’s Iditarod Ties
PETA ‘Dogs’ Will Push Company to Leave Deadly Dog Race in the Dust
For Immediate Release:
February 7, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
Attendees of the Philadelphia Auto Show on Saturday are in for an eyeful. Two PETA “dogs” swinging sledgehammers will smash a Chrysler vehicle to protest a Chrysler franchise’s continued sponsorship of the Iditarod dogsledding race, which has killed more than 150 dogs and counting. Other protesters will carry signs proclaiming, “Chrysler: Stop Driving Dogs to Their Death.”
When: Saturday, February 8, 12 noon
Where: Philadelphia Convention Center, 1101 Arch St. (at the intersection with 13th Street)
“When dogs used in the Iditarod aren’t being forced to run until they inhale their own vomit, they’re chained around the clock, only able to run in circles and howl,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is telling Chrysler that its sponsorship of this race must end or its reputation will be destroyed, like this car.”
The Iditarod’s official death toll of 150 dogs doesn’t include the scores of dogs who were killed for not being fast enough or who died while tied up during the off-season. PETA’s first-ever video exposé of several high-profile mushers’ properties revealed that dogs’ only protection—even when the wind chill dropped to 19 degrees below zero—were dilapidated, open-faced boxes or plastic barrels to which they were chained in the ice and snow. Many had worn-down, raw, and bloody paw pads from frantically running in circles at the end of their short chains, and dogs were denied veterinary care for open wounds and crippling injuries.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that numerous companies, including Jack Daniel’s, Costco, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Pizza Hut, Rite Aid, Safeway, and Wells Fargo, have ended their Iditarod promotions as the race’s cruelty to dogs has come to light.
PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
