People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) held a protest at Heritage Hotel on June 30, 2021 due to its relation to Iditarod. Heritage Hotel is owned and operated by Millennium Hotels and Resorts who is still supporting Iditarod — a long-distance dogsled race held annually in Alaska , where more than 150 dogs have died — PETA's “dog” Tagpi was the main attraction of the protest outside the Millennium- owned Heritage Hotel .

"PETA is calling on Millennium Hotels and Resorts to look into Iditarod 's cruelty to dogs," said PETA Senior Vice President of Campaigns Jason Baker. " Millennium visitors should feel the disgust that they are supporting the race that is running 150 dogs to their deaths and many more whose bodies are giving up on exhaustion."

Nearly half of the dogs that start the race don’t end it, and at the height of this year’s race, nearly 200 dogs were removed from the trail due to extreme fatigue, lameness, and other reasons, which added to the torture of the dogs left behind. . The leading cause of death for dogs racing on Iditarod is aspiration pneumonia — caused by inhaling their vinegar. Many others die even not during racing because they are chained outside with cold weather or killed because they don’t run fast.

Fuel and oil corporation ExxonMobil , one of Iditarod ’s big supporters and generating US $ 250,000 per year, has confirmed 2021 is the last year they will support the race — while Chrysler , Jack Daniel’s , Coca -Cola , Wells Fargo , and Alaska Airlines have stopped supporting Iditarod .