Animal abuse would not allow for race performance, mushers say

Last Friday, some of the Yukon Quest’s top mushers addressed the concerns of animal activists that running a dog in a 1,000-mile sled dog race is abuse.

Last Friday, some of the Yukon Quest’s top mushers addressed the concerns of animal activists that running a dog in a 1,000-mile sled dog race is abuse.

Musher Gerry Willomitzer offered to show those people what a real sled dog is all about.

“I’d like to take these people out on a training run and get them on the back of the sled,” he said.

Willomitzer said any dog who is running the Quest is in top physical form, and they love what they’re doing.

“If the dogs don’t want to go, they won’t go,” Willomitzer said.

The Quest veteran cited the change in race times over the past few years, where mushers are continuing to break records year after year, as 2009 champion Sebastian Schnuelle did this year.

“You can’t do that when you abuse animals, you can’t improve your performance,” Willomitzer said.

Three-time Quest winner Hans Gatt agrees, saying the dogs abilities have changed over the years, and so have the races to suit the dogs.

“The races have changed over the last four to five years pretty drastically,” Gatt said.

Distances between check points have gotten longer, increasing from 30 to 60 miles to 100, and the dogs have only gotten better.

“The dogs actually enjoy that more,” Gatt said. “We used to come into check points with pretty tired dogs, but that’s not happening anymore.”

Gatt said he pumps 10,000 calories a day into his dogs to keep them fueled up for the distances, which is something that hasn’t changed as the mushing world evolves.

“We are learning a lot about the body conditioning of the dogs and what they are capable of, it just blows my mind,” Gatt said.

Gatt believes the dogs have far from hit the limit of what they are capable of.

Schnuelle agrees, and is happy to be a part of the group testing the limits.

“Every year the envelope is pushed a little further,” Schnuelle said. “I think we are far from running the fastest time.”

The mushers say that this year it is not as likely any records will be broken, owever, as the race is traditionally a bit slower starting from Fairbanks.

Schnuelle also disagrees with the suggestion Quest dogs experience abuse.

“I’ve never had a nicer looking team than I had this spring after the Quest,” he said.

“I was pretty much gone and tired.”

Schnuelle laughed at the suggestion that he has to get in shape for the Quest.

“My dogs were the ones in shape,” Schnuelle said.

While Schnuelle enjoys eating at McDonalds, he said the real trick is preparing himself mentally for the race.

“It’s very tempting to say, ‘Oh I’ll just pull over for two hours,’ which turns into six,” he said. The musher’s hardest task during the Quest is staying awake.

Willomitzer agrees.

“The hardest problem is to get out of the sleeping bag when you have to,” he said.

Willomitzer said the race has changed for the mushers as well, as improvements in fabrics for sleeping bags has allowed them to actually get a good nights sleep – when they can – along the trail.

“Everybody has the opportunity to stay fairly comfortable out there,” Willomitzer said.