PETA fights for dog rights against F1 giant at Spanish Grand Prix

“Tombstones” with “bloody” dog collars were set up outside the Formula 1 (F1) Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday as supporters of PETA and the Spanish animal rights party PACMA held signs proclaiming: “150 dogs have died in the Iditarod”.

The demonstration is the latest in PETA’s campaign to stop F1 owner Liberty Media, through the company’s Alaska-based subsidiary GCI, from sponsoring the controversial dog sled race that has killed more than 150 dogs since its inception, often from aspiration pneumonia (caused by inhaling their own vomit), as reported by PETA.

“No reputable company would support an event that forces dogs to cross more than 1,600 kilometres of ice and wind, leading to their death”, says PETA Vice President Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA is urging Formula 1 to stay away from this death race, as Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, and other past sponsors have done.

Nearly 250 dogs were withdrawn from the race this year due to exhaustion, illness or injury, leaving the remaining dogs working even harder to pull the mushers. The official Iditarod death toll does not include the many others who were killed because they weren’t fast enough or who died out of season while chained to rickety crates or plastic barrels in the bitter cold, a practice exposed by an undercover PETA US investigator.

PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” opposes speciesism, a supremacist view. For more information, visit PETA’s website or follow the group on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

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