Comments on: Running on Empty http://www.scienceline.org/2008/11/28/bio-teyan-sled-dog-metabolism-iditarod/ The Shortest Distance Between You and Science Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:48:50 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Escobar Driver http://www.scienceline.org/2008/11/28/bio-teyan-sled-dog-metabolism-iditarod/comment-page-1/#comment-2479 Escobar Driver Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:42:56 +0000 http://scienceline.org/2008/11/28/bio-teyan-sled-dog-metabolism-iditarod/#comment-2479 I'm delighted to see scientific research into sled dogs. It doesn't surprise me that these wonderful animals are made to run - they're just a short hop from wolves who run their food down. Thanks for the post and keep up the good work. I’m delighted to see scientific research into sled dogs. It doesn’t surprise me that these wonderful animals are made to run – they’re just a short hop from wolves who run their food down.

Thanks for the post and keep up the good work.

]]> By: Margery Glickman http://www.scienceline.org/2008/11/28/bio-teyan-sled-dog-metabolism-iditarod/comment-page-1/#comment-2477 Margery Glickman Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:25:35 +0000 http://scienceline.org/2008/11/28/bio-teyan-sled-dog-metabolism-iditarod/#comment-2477 Dr. Davis' findings about dogs becoming robotic-like while running in the Iditarod don't square with the documented facts about how the dogs behave. The following are just a few examples of dogs refusing to run. According to the Associated Press, in the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported seeing musher Ramy Brooks kicking his dogs and beating them with a chain when they wouldn't run. A May 22, 2007 editorial in the Anchorage Daily News said, "Rare is the musher who hasn't lost it with his or her dogs. Ramy Brooks isn't the first and won't be the last." Steve Fossett wrote in his memoir "Chasing the Wind" that he bit his lead dog's right ear when he refused to keep running. Iditarod race winner Joe Runyan recommends shocking dogs with a cattle prod when they refused to move. Iditarod dogs aren't machines. They don't want to run when they are sick or injured. What happens to them during the Iditarod includes death, paralysis, frostbite of the penis and scrotum, bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons, vomiting, hypothermia, sprains, broken teeth and torn footpads. The dogs don't want to run when trail conditions are horrid. For instance, in 2007, Shain Perrins told the Alaska Public Radio that "Dogs aren't wanting to go, because they are going right into the wind. It's probably blowing, gusting up to 50 miles an hour in the valley." Dogs don't want to run when they're tired. They routinely suffer from anemia which exhausts them. Kathie Davis told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal that one of her dogs fell asleep in the middle of a run. Martin Buser's dog Quebec vanished from his gangline while he was on the move - and Buser had failed to notice." Buser found Quebec curled up in the snow to nap, right where he'd come loose. In Anchorage, several years ago, a musher's dogs got loose from his truck. They didn't run over 1,000 miles to Nome. They didn't even run to the outskirts of the city. They were found curled up, sleeping on people's lawns about ten blocks from where the musher's truck was parked. The blood tests dogs receive do not detect all the performance enhancing drugs they may be given. The dogs are not tested for all the common drugs. And there are so many new drugs, including synthetic versions, that it's even hard for testers of humans to keep up. But even knowing what drugs to test for isn't enough. Gene doping works on dogs and it's impossible to detect. Margery Glickman Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org Dr. Davis’ findings about dogs becoming robotic-like while running in the Iditarod don’t square with the documented facts about how the dogs behave. The following are just a few examples of dogs refusing to run. According to the Associated Press, in the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported seeing musher Ramy Brooks kicking his dogs and beating them with a chain when they wouldn’t run. A May 22, 2007 editorial in the Anchorage Daily News said, “Rare is the musher who hasn’t lost it with his or her dogs. Ramy Brooks isn’t the first and won’t be the last.” Steve Fossett wrote in his memoir “Chasing the Wind” that he bit his lead dog’s right ear when he refused to keep running. Iditarod race winner Joe Runyan recommends shocking dogs with a cattle prod when they refused to move.

Iditarod dogs aren’t machines. They don’t want to run when they are sick or injured. What happens to them during the Iditarod includes death, paralysis, frostbite of the penis and scrotum, bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons, vomiting, hypothermia, sprains, broken teeth and torn footpads.

The dogs don’t want to run when trail conditions are horrid. For instance, in 2007, Shain Perrins told the Alaska Public Radio that “Dogs aren’t wanting to go, because they are going right into the wind. It’s probably blowing, gusting up to 50 miles an hour in the valley.”

Dogs don’t want to run when they’re tired. They routinely suffer from anemia which exhausts them. Kathie Davis told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal that one of her dogs fell asleep in the middle of a run. Martin Buser’s dog Quebec vanished from his gangline while he was on the move – and Buser had failed to notice.” Buser found Quebec curled up in the snow to nap, right where he’d come loose.

In Anchorage, several years ago, a musher’s dogs got loose from his truck. They didn’t run over 1,000 miles to Nome. They didn’t even run to the outskirts of the city. They were found curled up, sleeping on people’s lawns about ten blocks from where the musher’s truck was parked.

The blood tests dogs receive do not detect all the performance enhancing drugs they may be given. The dogs are not tested for all the common drugs. And there are so many new drugs, including synthetic versions, that it’s even hard for testers of humans to keep up. But even knowing what drugs to test for isn’t enough. Gene doping works on dogs and it’s impossible to detect.

Margery Glickman
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org

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