Chained ‘Dogs’ to Tell Chrysler to Get Out of Cruel Iditarod
PETA Will Tell Company: Injuries, Doping, Death—Your Sponsorship’s a Wreck
For Immediate Release:
January 19, 2018
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
What: On Saturday, PETA protesters mimicking the conditions endured by hundreds of dogs raised for the Iditarod will be chained to barrels and brandishing signs proclaiming, “Chrysler: Stop Driving Dogs to Their Deaths,” outside the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, where the auto company will be appearing. The reason? A Chrysler franchise still plans to sponsor the 2018 Iditarod despite the race’s recent doping scandal and a veteran musher’s revelation that trainers in the industry have killed “hundreds on top of hundreds” of dogs who didn’t make the cut.
When: Saturday, January 20, 12 noon
Where: Outside the Cobo Center, 1 Washington Blvd. (at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and W. Larned Street), Detroit
“No reputable company should want its name attached to a race that’s synonymous with dog-doping and killing,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Chrysler to cut ties with the Iditarod and all the drugs, death, and abuse that come with it.”
PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” points out that more than 150 dogs have died in the Iditarod since it began, and those are just the reported deaths—this doesn’t include dogs who died immediately after the race, during training, or while chained to plastic barrels outside. In the 2017 race alone, five dogs died in less than one week.
Recently, a whistleblower released disturbing photographs and video footage of reportedly dying puppies and sick, injured dogs at a kennel owned by “Iditarod royalty” Dallas Seavey, the four-time race champion at the center of the recent dog-doping scandal.
Wells Fargo and State Farm recently ended their Iditarod sponsorships, and many other major brands—including Costco, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Pizza Hut, Rite Aid, and Safeway—cut ties with the race years ago.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
