Origins of the Iditarod

Hello everyone! February 2nd, 1925 marked the end of a long relay of diphtheria antitoxin to the city of Nome, Alaska. Commonly called “The Race of Mercy”, it is the historical event that the Iditarod is said to commemorate. But 92 years later, how well does the race we see today resemble these origins? Not as well as you might think. Firstly, the lengths differ greatly. Contrary to popular belief, the path of the Iditarod today has little to do with the Race of Mercy. As the name suggests, the majority of the race follows the Iditarod historic trail, which is simply a viable path through the heart of Alaska, much like the Oregon trail was a viable path to the Pacific Northwest in the heyday of pioneering. Although the paths share some ground closer to Nome (the ending point of both events), they hardly overlap (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iditarod_Trail#/media/File:Iditarod_Trail_BLM_map.jpg). The Iditarod Trail also runs nearly 1,000 miles, where the original race of mercy was 674. Another key difference is the methodology. The serum run was a relay. 20 teams shared the burden over a period of 5 and a half days. The average leg for one team was between 30-50 miles. Compare that to the Iditarod, where it is a single team of dogs is usually running 150-200 miles per day. Interestingly enough, the name of the race used to be longer, including the name of Leonard Seppala (Often considered the real hero of the serum run), but it was removed when the race was turned into the 1,000+ mile behemoth it is today (in order to gain more sponsorship). The length and methodology were seen as a slap in the face to the original sled dog teams. Lastly, the motivations. The race of mercy was a matter of life and death. The mushers at the time knew that every day the serum wasn’t in Nome, people were dying. The conditions were beyond treacherous, but they found a way to make it happen anyway to save lives. Even at that, they only drove their teams as far as they thought was reasonable. Compare that to the Iditarod, where the main motivations are money, titles, high profits for breeding winning animals and a pickup truck. It is usually those willing to risk their teams more (over those who sit out horrible conditions or bow out entirely) that get the highest reward. That’s it for the history lesson for now. If interests you, I’d highly recommend looking into it more to see the difference between then and now. Not everything about the past was wonderful for certain, but the way the Iditarod “commemorates” the Race of Mercy is about equivalent to asking a single horse and rider to run the entire Oregon Trail to commemorate the Pony Express relay teams. A couple more things to wrap up on this update: 1) Unfortunately, the bill I mentioned last year has been passed into law and is now enacted. To recap, the initial point of the law was to protect pets in cases of domestic violence and divorce, treating them more like children (with custody hearings) than simply as property. While at the same time, it adds more exemptions to legally exclude sled dogs as “pets”. What’s more, the context of what counts as a “sled dog” has been increased from dogs used in mushing practices to dogs owned for mushing practices. This petition is, of course, targeted at both the old and news laws. It is my hope to create a legal environment where, under no circumstances, is any less protection or legal consideration given to any dog, anywhere in Alaska; No Exceptions! 2) There was a documentary made about sled dogs (fittingly enough called “Sled Dogs”). It premiered at the Whistler Film Festival, winning the “World Documentary Award” therein. If you’d like to learn more about it, when it may be released and any information about it, check out its website (as well as social media links where updates will likely be posted), check it out here: http://sleddogsfilm.com/ Thank you again everyone for your support and your interest in helping these animals get the protections they so desperately deserve! If you have any suggestions of ways to help get the word out or any other ways to help, feel free to send in a message! David A. Moeller david@sleddogsmatter.com https://www.facebook.com/sleddogsmatter/ https://twitter.com/SledDogsMatter 1042 E. Fort Union Blvd. #251 Midvale, UT 84047