This puts paid to the specious claim by mushers, dog-sledding associations, and their corporate sponsors, that extreme running is "natural".

I question that the cause of the stomach ulcers and deaths is anything as new-agey benign as "stress". I question if adequate food for the dogs would be too heavy to carry and the dogs are kept on starvation rations, causing extreme stomach acids, the ulcers, and in some cases, death by hemorrhaging.

I know of a dog who was only being fed once a day who developed ulcers from having an empty stomach for too many hours a day. The cure was to feed her twice a day.

How often are dogs fed while racing?