Margery Glickman; Iditarod Redux.

I thought that after my last post on the Iditarod I would tuck the subject away till next March, but anti-Iditarodder Margery Glickman, director of the Sled Dog Action Coalition must have me on speed dial. Only hours after my post about our correspondence she fired off a new comment to the Salmon. Its always hard to judge someones demeanor in a letter but I thought her comments were just a tad snippy and never one to walk away from a pissing match I will reply to it here today.

Margery wrote:
I don't know where you get your figures about how many animals are killed by Miami-Dade Animal Services or why you would presume I am not doing anything to help.

First I would like to apologize for assuming Margery is not involved in a local dog crusade. I'm sure she is a wonderful person and I hear she bakes a mean chocolate chip cookie but the figures I quoted in the last post came from The Dade County Animal Services web site.

ASD's Save Rate is Increasing
The national average Save Rate (animals leaving a shelter alive through reclaim, adoption or rescue) is 28-percent. Miami-Dade Animal Services has reached 46-percent in the month of January and the year-to-date rate has increased to 36-percent.

From the Common Questions page
Why can’t all pets be adopted? 30,000 pets are brought to Animal Services each year. Sadly, there are not enough homes for all of them.

Although they didn't come right out to say how many animals were getting a syringe full of the pink stuff, it wasn't hard to do the math. So lets see... the save rate is 36% so the death rate is 1-.36= .64. 30000 X .64 = 19200 killed critters.

She Continues: But the reality is that wrongs happening in Miami or elsewhere don't justify or excuse the cruelties of the Iditarod.

The old "two wrongs don't make a right defense."
She is right but only if the two wrongs are morally equivalent, which they are not. The mushers, dogs, fans, vets, dog food companies etc. all derive a variety of fulfillment from mushing.
On the other hand, whether it is dogs at the pound or killing an oversupply of horses and dumping them in a landfill because some group of misdirected do gooders think that "by god they shouldn't be exported for food." the wanton waste of any creature is both regrettable and reprehensible. I'm sure I'll be getting hammered by the save the horse loons next. See; "What to do with the Horses"

She continues:
Regarding Ramy Brooks: The Iditarod created an "independent group" to investigate Brooks beating and kicking his dogs. Who is in this o-called "independent" group? Why won't the Iditarod release this information? Whether you can admit it or not, the Iditarod is cruel to dogs.

I will skip the X-Files conspiracy and get to the conclusion which is that Margery and I have two different perspectives that will never converge. She will continue to be a misguided do gooder and I will continue to admire people that still hold that sense of adventure to make the trek across the most wild, beautiful, awe inspiring land in America on the back of a dogsled.