Iditarod musher disqualified for whipping his dogs

March 18, 2007

Anchorage, Alaska - A three member panel disqualified Ramy Brooks from the 2007 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for abusing his dogs along the race trail.

A three member panel disqualified Ramy Brooks from the 2007 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for abusing his dogs along the race trail.

From the Iditarod press release by Mark Nordman, Race Marshal: A 3 member panel of race judges, convened today, March 17, in Nome Alaska, disqualified Ramy Brooks from the 2007 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Witnesses in Golovin provided information to race officials detailing abusive actions by Brooks to his dog team. Brooks acknowledged "spanking" the dogs in his team with trail marking lathe. The judges voted unanimously to disqualify Brooks from the 2007 Iditarod.

Based upon the information presented to me, including the results from the gross necropsy, I have no reason to believe that there is a correlation between this incident and the death of Kate, the 3 year old female on Ramy's team which died on the trail between White Mountain and Safety.