"They dined on whatever they managed to forage from snow drifts or whatever provisions they brought along — their ponies and sled dogs included."

"The practice of eating pack animals, while seemingly cruel, was driven by a compelling logic: As the explorers consumed food and fuel, their sled loads lightened. Lighter sleds needed fewer dogs to pull them. Dogs thus made redundant became food for their fellows and the explorers. Amundsen slaughtered 24 healthy dogs during a single expedition. Doing so filled him with a sublime awe. 'Great masses of beautiful fresh, red meat,' he wrote of the butchering, 'with quantities of the most tempting fat, lay spread over the snow,' calling to mind 'memories of dishes on which the cutlets were elegantly arranged side by side, with paper frills on the bones, and a neat pile of petit pois in the middle.'"

From "The Art of Antarctic Cooking" (via Metafilter).