If you’re into dog sled racing, it’s likely that you’re familiar with the Iditarod. If you aren’t, it’s the largest sled dog race on the planet and has been running since 1973. It runs each March and, as one can imagine, can get a little hairy. In addition to blizzards and frostbite, participants are at risk for all kinds of animal encounters, including hard-charging moose. As part of this year’s edition, one musher has been hit with a massive time penalty after running into a moose and not taking care of business, as per the Iditarod Trail Committees rulebook.
After running into a moose in the early morning hours, the large animal became entangled with the dogs on the trail. Unable to release the moose, Dallas Seavey was forced to shoot the animal with his pistol around 2 a.m. on March 5th. The debacle, which ended with one dead moose and a severely injured K9, has now cost Seavey two hours on his overall time.
Upon reporting to the following checkpoint, he was made aware of the judgment levied against him. According to a release from the committee, it was determined that Seavey had only spent 10 minutes at the kill site (no word on how that was determined, though). The problem being that race rules require that all mushers that kill edible wild game in self defense, do so humanely and leave the animal gutted to preserve the meat.
Race rule 34 states: “In the event that an edible big game animal (i.e., moose, caribou, buffalo), is killed in defense of life or property, the musher must gut the animal and report the incident to a race official at the next checkpoint. Following teams must help gut the animal when possible. No teams may pass until the animal has been gutted and the musher killing the animal has proceeded. Any other animal killed in defense of life or property must be reported to a race official, but need not be gutted.”
Attempting to score his 6th Iditarod Championship, Seavey was handed a costly blow, drastically reducing his chances of finishing with a top time. But against all odds (and penalties and moose), the determined musher turned moose gutter managed to score another convincing win on the near 1,000 mile trail.
His 6th win on the treacherous tale sets Seavey in a league all his own with the most wins in the history of the race.
Images: Facebook/Dallas Seavey
