Lewis Hamilton Slammed Over Dogs’ Deaths: Silence Is Complicity, Says PETA  

Lewis Hamilton Slammed Over Dogs’ Deaths: Silence Is Complicity, Says PETA  

London – Once PETA’s Person of the Year, Lewis Hamilton now finds himself in the doghouse, as PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk fired off a letter calling on the Formula 1 (F1) driver to end his silence and use his considerable influence to stop the suffering and deaths of dogs used in the cruel 1,000-mile Iditarod dog-sled race. Hamilton was spotted dining out with F1 owner and Iditarod sponsor Liberty Media’s CEO Greg Maffei – who, unlike Exxon Mobil and Coca-Cola executives, has refused to take action to save dogs by ending his company’s sponsorship of the Iditarod.

Newkirk urges Hamilton, a dog guardian and ethical vegan, to be true to his reputation for defending the underdog: “Please, stop ignoring our desperate appeal for help in preventing more dogs from enduring hideous deaths in a dreadful race sponsored by F1’s owner. A word from you could save dogs every bit as precious as Roscoe, with whom you share your home.”

The letter highlights how, in the gruelling Iditarod, dogs are forced to pull heavy sleds through some of the most extreme weather conditions on the planet, with up to 80-mph winds and temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees. Nearly 250 dogs were pulled from the trail this year due to exhaustion, illness, or injury, leaving the remaining ones to work even harder to pull the mushers. The Iditarod’s official death toll of more than 150 dogs doesn’t include the countless animals who were killed because they weren’t fast enough or who died during the off-season while chained to dilapidated boxes or plastic barrels in the bitter cold, a practice exposed by an undercover PETA US investigation.

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

Contact:

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

#