“The Iditarod race is a commemoration, or an event to remember something, of that historic event.”(Scholastic News) The “historic event” previously stated in the quote was about the delivery of diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska in 1925 when an epidemic struck everyone in Nome. This event created the challenging and fun Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome. The racers ride on a sled pulled by dogs who they bond with and learn to care for. Although the original race to bring the medicine to Alaska was dangerous and uncontrollable, the Iditarod race now has rules to protect the sled dogs and let both the dogs and musher(racer) have a great time. For these reasons, I believe that the Iditarod race should be kept and not banned. The Iditarod …show more content…
Doris Lin said, “Anyone who has been convicted of animal cruelty or animal neglect in Alaska is disqualified from being a musher in the Iditarod. The race requires the team to take three mandatory breaks.” (Thought.Co). Since the mushers that are qualified have not been convicted of animal cruelty, the chances of animal abuse is low throughout the race. Also, the three mandatory breaks makes sure that both the sled dogs and mushers have time to rest so that they aren’t exhausted during the race. In addition, if a sled dog happens to overheat on the Iditarod trail, “the musher will remove it from the team, pack snow around it to cool it, and put it in side the sled until they get to the next checkpoint.” (Fraser) Again, the musher will find a way to take care of his/her dogs by obeying the rules to pack snow around them in case they start overheating. The rule that the musher has to put the dog in the sled is also fair, since the dog gets a break while they’re trying to cool themselves down until they get to the next checkpoint where a professional vet will give it a check-up. Even more, the HuffPost states. “Those issues still hound the race in its 40th year, even as supporters point to safety measures such as microchips, drug tests, health screening, and mid-race checkups, plus the dogs’ training and genes.” These safety measures go a long way to make sure that the dogs …show more content…
Lots of people believe that “sled dogs look too thin” but these people keep forgetting that “these dogs exercise everyday and are in top athletic shape.” (Arnold) One possible reason many believe the sled dogs are too skinny might be because nowadays people see too many obese sled dogs and consider it “normal”. They should realize that if these sled dogs were too thin, they wouldn’t have the energy to run, yet the times of completing the Iditarod race are getting faster and faster. These sled dogs are even adapting to the conditions of the race. A section from “The Amazing Race” from Life Magazine states, “The first is a well-conditioned heart and circulatory system, which transports oxygen more efficiently to the muscles. . .The second is a high density of mitochondria in the muscle cells. Mitochondria are structures that use oxygen to break down digested food and release energy.” With their amazing heart and circulatory system, the sled dogs must be able to run very easily since the oxygen efficiently goes to the muscles, so they will have a lot of power when they run. Also, when their mitochondria kicks in, they get a lot of energy. Those two attributes create a powerful dog that has a lot of energy and can go very far. No dog would be more perfect for racing the Iditarod