Seppala Kennels 'SledDogBlog'

On the backs of the dogs

This year's Yukon Quest, even more than most, has got me upset about the kind of people that will seek a semi-suicidal "adrenaline rush," or personal glory, or merely the reassurance that they have balls, on the backs of their dogs.

Ever since I moved to the Yukon in 1993 I've listened to thoughtless couch-potatoes saying to me, "Oh, you've got sleddogs -- are you going to enter the Quest?" And ever since I started looking at this thousand-mile long distance race up close, I've been appalled at its callous disregard for ordinary human -- and humane -- values. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. It's promoted as "the toughest dogsled race on earth." Nobody would argue with that assessment. That's not any kind of recommendation in my book!

Let's look at the qualifications of this big tough race:

• The trail's checkpoints are 'way too far apart, necessitating that much of the race be run with overloaded sleds.


• The trail is often very badly marked.


• The trail changes from year to year and doesn't actually exist until it's broken out and marked a couple weeks prior to the race; it is often without a good bottom, badly broken out, and full of dangerous cut sapling stumps and other obstacles that would be eliminated from a permanent trail.


• The trail is therefore very rough and rudimentary.


• The trail has long stretches on the Yukon River, exposing teams to really dangerous thin ice and open lead situations for no good reason.


• The river trail goes through areas of "jumble ice" that invites injury of musher and dogs.


• The trail has repeated abrupt descents in which overloaded sleds stand a good chance of overrunning the dogs.


• The trail traverses a series of high summits subject to whiteout conditions and other extreme dangers.


• The "no outside assistance" rule leaves the dogs completely at the mercy of a driver who is often sleep-deprived, exhausted, and impaired in judgment.


• The drivers are obsessed with strategic "games" whose object is to wear one another's teams out or trick drivers into errors of team management.


• The race, which began life as "an extended camping trip," has evolved into a race which more and more involves extended endurance-sprints.


• Quest competition has reached the point at which winning depends completely upon playing fast and loose with one's teams rest/recovery cycle. Whoever can cut resting time just to the irreducible minimum but not beyond, will win the race. Of course, there are always those who go beyond that, souring their dogs or running them physically into the ground.


• The race (like all big dogsled races these days) is a hotbed of viral disease.

Doesn't that sound to you like a situation to be avoided, if you care anything about your dogs? Well, guess what -- that's exactly what it is! But many of these guys don't care that much about the dogs. Every spring and summer in Whitehorse we see a series of newspaper classified ads in which "Quest veterans" are offered for sale or even given away. Quest dogs are cannon fodder; a dispensable commodity; a means to an end.

This year's incident on Eagle Summit in which several teams were trapped by whiteout conditions and one Quest 300 musher lost his team trying to get off the mountain, was just another example of the uncontrolled, uncaring nature of this race. Quest officials literally had NO IDEA where TWELVE TEAMS from the two races (Yukon Quest and Quest 300) were, at one point. High winds had grounded aircraft. Snowmobile patrols turned back. Experienced mushers like Hans Gatt and Bill Kleedehn came in saying they were glad just to be alive, and that someone could easily get killed up there. And when they WERE able to send out search planes, there wasn't a single Quest vet on any of them. Everyone is just lucky that the 2006 Quest didn't generate a real tragedy.

In this experienced dog driver's humble opinion, the Yukon Quest is sheer exploitation of sleddogs. It's one thing to be an "extreme sports" practitioner, one of those people who really don't care if they live or die as long as they can get that adrenaline fix that is their main reason for existing. If they kill themselves, who the hell cares! BUT THE SLEDDOGS DIDN'T VOLUNTEER FOR THAT KIND OF DANGER AND MISERY, PARTICULARLY AT THE HANDS OF A DRIVER WHOSE JUDGMENT IS IMPAIRED. (As it arguably must be for anyone to voluntarily subject himself and his dogs to the Quest.) Extreme sports should not involve animals. Dog mushers reflexively close ranks and form a defensive circle like muskoxen when the humane aspects of a race are questioned. They would do better to clean this race up, find a permanent trail for it that avoids the river and the summits, and get rid of the extreme-macho adrenaline-freak aspects of it, before something happens that will generate so much negative publicity it kills the race permanently.

Long distance racing, sensibly organised, could be fun for dog drivers of a wide variety of age, ability and experience -- if the extreme-sport "toughest race on earth" bullshit could be got rid of. The Quest started its existence as an alternative to the Iditarod Trail race for mushers who could not afford the expenses of that race, and was conceived as an event that would be enjoyable for its drivers. Why should it not be possible for drivers to get enough sleep? Why not have enough checkpoints to keep sled loads reasonable? Why not a permanent trail that avoids really dangerous situations? WHY SHOULD A LONG DISTANCE RACE NOT BE FUN AND SAFE FOR DRIVERS AND DOGS?

Notice to Weblice

NOTICE TO ALL WEBLICE, such as "GnTtqcLxdB" (operating out of a yahoo.co.uk email account) who post their SPAM NASTIES in the "comments" field of this and other blogs: YOU ARE ENTERING A RADIATION ZONE. TOUCH THIS WEBLOG AND YOUR FINGERS, TOES, NOSE, TONGUE AND GENITALIA WILL SWELL UP, OOZE GREEN PUS, ROT, AND DROP OFF. YOUR EARS WILL TURN INTO ARSEHOLES AND BEFOUL YOUR SHOULDERS. YOUR BRAINS, ALREADY TURNED TO MUSH, WILL FERMENT AND EMIT A SICKENING ODOUR OF CARRION.

You don't believe me? Just try it! The law of karma prevails here (and elsewhere, as little as you and other totally irresponsible moronic misfits may believe that). As you sow, so shall you reap.

The "comments" function on this blog is there to allow my readers to give me feedback. It is not meant to be a convenience for you to use to push lawsuits, propecia, cialis, oem software, viagra, penis and breast augmentation, and pornography.

From now on, every one of you will be pursued energetically through your web hosts, your e-mail service providers, and any other avenue I can find to make life hard for you. "GnTtqcLxdB" has already been subject of an abuse report to Yahoo! UK. May you all rot in hell, sleep in your own excrement, and consume no nourishment, physical or mental, other than the "products" you push. You are a grotesque excresence on the face of existence, surplus to the requirements of the entire universe. May each and every one of you suddenly, silently and painfully vanish away, and never be heard from again.

I HAVE DELIBERATELY LEFT THE COMMENTS FIELD OF THIS POST OPEN FOR YOU. PLEASE DO GO AHEAD AND LEAVE SOME MORE OF YOUR DROPPINGS HERE! I WILL ENJOY DELETING THEM AND USING THE EVIDENCE TO MAKE LIFE UNPLEASANT FOR YOU.