Jack Daniel’s Ends 15-Year-Sponsorship of Cruel Dog Race

Alcohol company Jack Daniel’s confirmed last month that it would end its sponsorship of dog-sled race Iditarod after 15 years. The decision to withdraw its sponsorship came after animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organized numerous protests outside of the whiskey-maker’s offices in Tennessee. “Jack Daniel’s did the tail-wagging, right thing by cutting ties with a race that forces dogs to run so far and so fast that some even choke to death on their own vomit,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman, a teetotaler, said. “Today, PETA will toast the company’s business-savvy decision to leave the Iditarod in the dust.” To celebrate the victory, PETA has sent dog-paw-shaped vegan chocolates to the Jack Daniel’s offices and distributed bottles of its whiskey among its own offices in Virginia, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles. Several sponsors of the race, in which at least 150 dogs have died since it launched in Alaska in 1973, have pulled out in recent years—including Costco, Nestle, Pizza Hut, and Wells Fargo—and PETA is now calling on Coca-Cola to do the same.