I read the March 13 article about the musher's wayward dog and their later reunion (March 14) The Iditarod is a dog sled race held in Alaska every year. In the Iditarod, dogs are forced to run while pulling sleds 1,150 miles. More than 137 dogs have died in this race. Most of the survivors have lung damage by the end of the race. It is common for mushers to beat their dogs. Just a few sponsors of this cruelty include Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo and Exxon Mobil, according to helpsleddogs.org. If you or I treated our dogs like this in our back yards, we would be arrested and prosecuted. Yet, nothing happens to the mushers and the sponsors. WILLIAM McMULLIN, St. Paul