Oil Giant Urged to Stop Fuelling Alaskan Dog-Sled Race Cruelty

Oil Giant Urged to Stop Fuelling Alaskan Dog-Sled Race Cruelty

New PETA Campaign Calls On ExxonMobil, Which Operates Esso Petrol Stations, to Stop Sponsoring Iditarod Race

London – Because ExxonMobil – which operates Esso petrol stations in the UK – has been pumping money into Alaska’s gruelling Iditarod dog-sled race, fuelling dog deaths, suffering, and neglect, PETA has launched a new campaign calling for the oil giant to cut ties with the race.

“ExxonMobil has the shameful distinction of being one of the last major companies still sponsoring the Iditarod’s cruelty to dogs,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is urging it to stop propping up an evil industry that forces dogs to run so far and so fast that they often die after inhaling their own vomit.”

Jack Daniel’s, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Alaska Airlines, and many other companies cut ties with the race after PETA US pointed out that more than 150 dogs have died in the Iditarod since it began. In addition to being tied up on mushers’ properties (as revealed in this PETA US exposé), dogs are forced to pull heavy sleds 1,000 miles through blinding blizzards and sub-zero temperatures.

More than 220 dogs were pulled off the trail during the 2020 race because of exhaustion, illness, injury, or other causes. One, Cool Cat, developed twisted intestines and almost died. Another, Betty, had pneumonia and was in critical condition, and two others refused to eat and had fevers, diarrhoea, and persistent coughs.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

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