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March 3, 1999--Issue #36

USA TODAY COLUMNIST CALLS IDITAROD "IHURTADOG:"
In the March 3rd USA Today, Joe Saraceno takes on the Iditarod dog sled race. "Imagine running more than 1,000 miles or roughly the equivalent from Boston to St. Louis. Imagine trudging for almost two weeks over frozen terrain, jagged rocks, stumps and divots at subzero temperatures, often in the middle of the night. Your feet are raw, cracked and bloody despite wearing 'booties.' When you protest, your coach hands you Super Glue to affix a patch of moleskin to your oozing sores. Limping and exhausted, perhaps running with a strength-sapping virus attacking your scrawny 45-pound body, imagine surreptitiously being given tranquilizers or opiates to mask injury or improve performance. Imagine being tethered to 15 other runners on a 50-foot gangline while pulling 400 pounds. Imagine flipping on your back and being dragged down an icy incline. Imagine the "weaker" of your siblings being culled from the family. Imagine seeing them shot in the head. Or imagine someone beating you to death with a snow hook...Imagine no more. All of this has happened. And worse. This is the Iditarod. This is sick and stupid.." Saraceno quotes Mallie King, the wife of a veterinarian who has won the "Golden Stethoscope" award at the Iditarod, openly proclaiming that the race is a "giant laboratory for him." Saraceno denounces the races as, "a travesty of grueling proportions. It is not entertainment. It is an embarrassment."