Iditarod Musher Dramatically Revives Fallen Dog

[jsmirman]

107. Thank you for the article/I gotta tell you

Three deaths a race being presented as acceptable?

The idea that in that span of time, taking that (I would think) unusually healthy population of dogs, all in the prime of life - I call statistical BS that three from that population are likely to die under normal circumstances. I've done statistical work for a living, and there are all sorts of statistical shenanigans in the statement here:

Race veterinarians say those are the sorts of deaths that happen to dogs almost anywhere on a daily basis, although the motor vehicle most likely to hit and kill dogs elsewhere is a car or truck, not a snowmobile. Illnesses, however, kill dogs the same way they do people, only more often given the relatively short life spans of canines.

This is pure justification. I've got to think reading this description makes you at least the slightest bit uncomfortable - well cared for, healthy dogs do not just up and die at those rates over a period of less than two weeks.

It's this kind of junk from veterinarians for hire that makes me hate the AVMA and not trust someone solely on the basis of them having a DVM/VMD.

Citing short doggy lifespans to justify deaths in a two week period? Come on.

I'm going to have to go with needing to see a number of years of ZERO deaths, or death only under extraordinary/unpreventable circumstances, to not find the event unsettling. People die crossing the street, sure. People also die running super-marathons in the desert. Just because there's a chance you could die doing both doesn't make the two things equally deadly.