Talk:Balto

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Dogs Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Dogs, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to articles on Dogs on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

Balto's birth year is listed here as 1922. However, the placard placed next to him at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History says BALTO - SIBERIAN HUSKY - 1919-1933.Robert K S 00:44, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, I'm not sure, but the 1922 year used here is consistant with this and this listed as references here stating that Balto died in 1933 at the age of 11. Those references can be wrong, of course, but I suggest we trust them for now unless someone knows anything more definite. Shanes 00:58, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm surely no expert on this subject, but I notice that nowhere in the article does it clearly state what breed of dog Balto was. I presume he was a Siberian Husky from the user's note seen above, and the article has a link for "husky," but that leads to a disambiguination page that includes a number of dog breeds that use that name. Forgive me if I'm being obtuse, but perhaps this article would be improved by clarifying this? --Lvthn13 02:01, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

The only book I have on it (The race to Nome, Kenneth Ungermann, 1963) just says Balto was a husky ("Shaggy-coated husky"), with no clear statement on what kind of husky he was as I can see (just skimmed through a few chapters to check). Togo is stated as being a Siberian Husky, though, and I would assume Balto was one, too. But as I'm also no expert on this, I am reluctant to just put it in the article without any source for it. Maybe I'll find it somewhere some time, or maybe anyone else know? Shanes 02:33, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anchorage statue not Balto?

The Anchorage, AK article says that the statue is mistaken for Balto, but is in fact just a statue of an anonymous sleddog. If that is the case, this article and the name of the image need to change. Kovu401 00:45, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

It appears that an anonymous user edited both the Anchorage, Alaska and commons:Image:Statue_of_Balto_in_Anchorage.jpg pages on 31 July 2006 with the new information. That person did not explain the edits to both of those pages but I assume those edits were made in good faith. The orignal person whom uploaded the image thought it was Balto and so did I. Now that doubt has been raised about the identity of the sled dog, I am going to find out whom the statue is of, if any.

If the statue is of another known sled dog or an anonymous sled dog, then the image will be removed in this article and have the captions edited in the four other articles that the image is displayed on. --Coaster1983 03:35, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Section: In the movie

I'm going to be bold and remove this section altogether, since the information is about the character in Balto (film) and not the real dog, and anyone who wants to know about the fictional dog can go to the article about the movie. I'm moving the section here in case there's something worth salvaging to the movie article. - ∅ (∅), 23:02, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

In the 1995 film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation, Balto is a dog-wolf hybrid, i.e. a half-wolf, who is friends with Boris the snow goose and Muk and Luk. He is also good friends with Jenna and later on they fall in love. He and Jenna have a litter of six pups (see Balto 2: Wolf Quest). Throughout the film, Balto must undergo the torment of being bullied by the other dogs and live as a town outcast. When a husky team becomes stranded in the snowstorm with the anti-toxin, it is up to Balto to get the medcine back to Nome. Kevin Bacon gives the voice of Balto as well as a couple other well known actors.

Well done. I agree. Shanes 23:12, 13 October 2006 (UTC)