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Re: [RC] Sled Dogs and Endurance riders - Dyane SmithHi, Kristene, I have also been interested in this sport, at least in watching it on TV from the comfort of my living room. I remember a number of years ago, I saw an interview with Susan Butcher (?) in which she credited her then recent win to taking the puppies into the house and socializing them, a practice that then resulted in the companion dog relationship that most dog owners are familiar with. Apparently, before that the dogs were treated more or less like motorcycles.... I wonder if the concept of "winning through relationship" didn't set the stage for vet checks and other innovations for the benefit of the dogs. Dyane ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kristene Smuts" <Ksmuts@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <walkergirl@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 1:44 AM Subject: Re: [RC] Sled Dogs and Endurance riders It is sickening. It has quotes from a person........>>As in all sport, and as we've experienced with our beloved sport, there are huge misconceptions about what we do "to" our animals. I'm from South Africa where it snows only on the very high mountain tops, so I would probably never sit on a sled, ever, but the sport interested me and I also heard about all the abuse. I then embarked on a "fact finding mission" - the number of books I've read on the subject are starting to rival my horse education books and my bookmarks for websites are in the double digits. The only difference between sled racing and endurance racing (!) is that they are very open about what happens in their sport - we're not. We tend to hush up the incidents and hope they'll go away. Their history runs parallel to ours. In the beginning they didn't have any vets, now they have vets at every stop. They have compulsory timed lay-overs at certain parts of the trail. Every dog death is thoroughly investigated and the musher is dealt with accordingly. As with our animals, stuff happens and not every death is caused by the musher. The dog being kicked to death was a real incident and I have the book, written by Gary Paulsen, that describes that event and what happened afterwards. A very spiritual book, IMO. Please don't point a finger at any other "abusive" sport until you've educated yourself about that sport. BTW, those books on the Iditarod and the Yukon races are truly inspirational - talk about endurance!!!! Boy, those guys are tough! Kristene South Africa Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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