Autoblog

Another action group has set its sights on the auto industry, this time its People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA has the Chrysler Group in its crosshairs for a loose connection it maintains with the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race held in Alask, which officially starts this Sunday. Clearly PETA has a problem with using sled dogs as an engine for ground-based transportation over snow. We get that. What we don't get is why the organization is attacking the Chrysler Group.

Automotive News reports that Dodge actually sponsored the Iditarod for three years in the early '90s. Dodge backed off, however, in 1993 when Alaska's Dodge dealers group took over primary sponsorship of the event. The dealers dropped the sponsorship in 2003, and ever since Ron Udd, owner of Anchorage Chrysler-Dodge (a single dealership) has paid $300,000 a year to be the official sponsor.

PETA claims on its website that DaimlerChrysler is a sponsor of the 2007 Iditarod, which obviously is not the case, and invites its members to contact who it refers to as "DaimlerChrysler Corporation CEO" Tom LaSorda (Uh, that would be Dieter Zetsche, did you mean to say Chrysler Group CEO?). The organization conveniently has a page set up with a letter all written, all you have to do is type in your name and hit send. When did protestors get so lazy?

Regardless of your feelings towards the plight of sled dogs, PETA could at least put in the leg work to get its facts straight before it aims its gun of righteousness at the wrong target.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]