‘Dog Graveyard’ to Haunt Syncbak Over Iditarod Promo
For Immediate Release:
March 31, 2021
Contact:
Tapi Mbundure 202-483-7382
Syncbak’s service VUit streamed the Iditarod—in which more than 150 dogs have died—so tomorrow, PETA supporters will set up two “graveyards” of “dead dogs,” one outside the company’s Marion headquarters and another downtown, to suggest that the company cut ties with the race.
When: Thursday, April 1, 12 noon
Where: Marion Square, 1110 Seventh Ave. (east of 10th Street), Marion
When: Thursday, April 1, 1 p.m.
Where: Syncbak’s headquarters, 1548 E. Post Rd. (south of Meadowview Drive), Marion
“VUit should consider the deaths and misery of the dogs and never again stream the Iditarod’s spectacle of suffering,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “No one but a psychopath wants to watch an event that has run 150 dogs to their deaths and harmed countless others and involves extreme cruelty to dogs between races.”
ExxonMobil, Chrysler, Jack Daniel’s, Alaska Airlines, and many other companies ended Iditarod sponsorships after learning from PETA that up to half the dogs who start the race can’t finish it. During this year’s Iditarod alone, nearly 200 were pulled off the trail because of exhaustion, illness, injury, or other issues. The leading cause of death for dogs forced to race in the Iditarod is aspiration pneumonia—caused by inhaling their own vomit. Many more have died during the off-season while chained up outside in subzero temperatures or were killed because they weren’t considered fast enough.
Sled Dogs, a documentary that shines a spotlight on the dogs who are forced to run until their bodies break down or who are killed if they don’t measure up, is available on Prime Video and Plex.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
