A Few Words About the Author of This Petition:
Mushers try to defend sled dog racing by calling it a ‘tradition’. Racing sled dogs was never a tradition in the Yukon! My own mother ran dog team but she never raced them. *The Yukon Quest 1,000-mile sled dog race was dreamed up by a bunch of drunken Iditarod mushers in a bar in Alaska in 1983 who wanted to run another race in the Yukon.
About My Advocacy: I’ve been an animal rights advocate for many years. I’ve also been villainized in the Yukon and Alaska for standing up and speaking out for the sled dogs. My first petition exposing the abuse of sled dogs in the North, signed by thousands in good faith, was suddenly hacked - likely by mushers and race supporters. My website was banned, posts on social media removed due to false reports, and my last book was black-balled in the Yukon. The Yukon is not fond of animal rights advocates.
What Do I Know About Sled Dogs? I am from The Yukon. I’ve lived it. I've been there. I’ve seen it all. The blatant abuse, the pain, the injuries. All too easily-hidden up here in the far North.
On Being an Animal Rights Advocate in the Far North: I used to wear a lot of regalia onstage. However I no longer wear or eat anything animal. Born the daughter of a Yukon trapper I now speak for the animals. I know how they suffer. Though I cannot atone to those who were sacrificed, I sometimes wear a bit of hide and play my drum to honour them when I speak in public. *Now that Science can replicate any material, fur trapping is now purely a vanity venture. Yet the animals continue to suffer. I sometimes think that those who waltz around clad in expensive furs should have to watch how the animals die. Does it even occur to them they are wearing the hide of a dead animal?
My present online petition has been signed by 151,268 supporters. I also have PDF’s containing 16,000 angry comments made by petition supporters aimed at the Yukon Government for continuing to support sled dog racing and demanding an end to this blatant animal abuse. I am at liberty to post them on social media. I may consider doing that
If you love dogs please sign and share the current petition titled: STOP SLED DOGS BEING RUN TO DEATH IN YUKON QUEST!
*At: STOP SLED DOGS BEING RUN TO DEATH!
Those who sponsor long distance sled dog races are promoting animal abuse.
I wrote the poem “because i am a sled dog” in memory of over 40 dogs who have died during the Yukon Quest including Boppy the Sled Dog who was run to death in minus -55 degrees near Dawson City Yukon on February 11 2019 when he choked to death on his own vomit – That’s how most sled dogs die in races.
Also in memory of hundreds of dogs who have died in the 1,000-mile Iditarod sled dog race, most recently PREGNANT Ventana who collapsed and died on the trail last year on March 6, 2025 as well as three other dogs.
PLEASE SIGN and SHARE this PETITION and MAKE A DONATION to help create awareness! Stop Sled Dogs Being Run to Death in Yukon Quest
The following poem has been translated into many languages and presented at international events around the world. It is a poem about life seen through the eyes of a Northern sled dog written by PJ Yukon Poet Laureate on March 6th 2017.
“because i am a sled dog”
because i am a sled dog
i have no voice
i can only speak to you
with my eyes
with my bark
and with the wagging of my tail
if i could talk to you
i would tell you that i worship you
and that my only wish
is to be with you
to be loved and adored
and to be wanted for who i am
i would tell you
i am a living breathing being
much like you
that feels love and joy and pain
and if i could only speak to you in words
i would tell you all these things
i would tell you i am here
to do your bidding
even if that means running a thousand miles
in a brutal race i didn’t choose to run
even if it means
i might suffer and die
for you are my world
my greatest joy
and i only live to please you
i would protect you with my life
if you asked me to
all i ask in return
is that you love me back
©PJ Yukon Poet Laureate March 7th 2017