Millennium Hotels and Resorts Drop Support for the Iditarod After 30 Years

Spurred by a global campaign by PETA and its affiliates, Millennium Hotels and Resorts—owned by City Developments Limited (CDL)—has confirmed that the chain’s nearly 30 years of support of the Iditarod has ended. In response, PETA US pulled a S$30,000 ad campaign targeting the Singaporean conglomerate, which operates 125 hotels in 22 countries.

The Iditarod is held every year in Alaska. Hundreds of dogs are forced to pull heavy sleds through some of the worst weather conditions on the planet. Along the 1,600-kilometer stretch, dogs’ feet are torn apart by ice and rocks. Many dogs pull muscles, incur stress fractures or become sick with diarrhea, dehydration, intestinal viruses or bleeding stomach ulcers. At least 150 dogs have died during the Iditarod since it began in 1973.

During the 2021 race alone, nearly 200 dogs were pulled off the trail because of exhaustion, illness, injury, or other causes.  The leading cause of death for dogs on the Iditarod trail is aspiration pneumonia—caused by inhaling their own vomit. The race’s official death toll doesn’t include countless other dogs who were killed simply because they weren’t fast enough or who died during the off-season while chained next to dilapidated boxes or plastic barrels in the bitter cold, a practice exposed in a PETA US undercover investigation.

This huge victory for dogs, who deserve better than being run to death for mushers’ bragging rights, follows a tenacious PETA campaign that couldn’t have been won without your support.

With campaigns from Alaska to New York and protests held from Paris …

… to Manila …

… and with the help of hundreds of thousands of supporters like you, we put the hotel chain on notice. And it worked! Together, we made the Iditarod’s cruelty to dogs impossible to ignore and gave Millennium Hotels no choice but to end its support of the deadly event.

Millennium joins ExxonMobil—a former major sponsor that paid the race US$250,000 a year—as well as Jack Daniel’s, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, and dozens of other companies in cutting ties with the Iditarod.

Only a few major corporate sponsors, such as Liberty Media subsidiary GCI, remain—and PETA US recently bought stock in Liberty Broadband, the owner of Formula 1, to push it to drop its sponsorship. As such, protesters are to be expected at the Singapore Grand Prix later this year.

In the meantime, click below to urge the internet service provider to do the right thing for dogs: