Iditarod Dog Race musher punished for failing to properly gut moose he killed
Iditarod officials on Wednesday imposed a two-hour time penalty on musher Dallas Seavey for not properly gutting the elk he killed during the race earlier this week.
A three-person panel investigated the circumstances surrounding the death of the moose, which tangled with Seavey and his dog team early Monday, about 12 hours after the daylong race officially began. One dog was injured during the encounter and was flown back to Anchorage for care.
If a musher kills a large game animal such as elk, caribou or buffalo during the race in defense of life or property, the rules require him to gut the animal and report it to officials at the next checkpoint.
Seavey, a five-time Iditarod champion, encountered the moose shortly after leaving the checkpoint in Skwentna. He used a gun to shoot and kill him about 14 miles outside the village at 1:32 a.m. on Monday.
According to the panel’s findings, Seavey spent about 10 minutes at the murder scene, then crushed his dog team for about 11 miles before camping during a three-hour layover. The team then left for the next checkpoint at 5:55 a.m., arriving at Finger Lake at 8:00 a.m., where Seavey reported the murder.
“He fell on my sled; it was scattered all over the course,” Seavey told an Iditarod Insider television crew at the Finger Lake checkpoint, where he urged race officials to get the elk off the trail.
“I stripped it as best I could, but it was ugly,” he said.
A statement from the Iditarod said that “it was determined that the animal had not been sufficiently gutted by the musher.” By definition, gutting involves removing the intestines and other internal organs, officials said.
The Iditarod can impose time penalties if a majority of the three-person panel agrees that a rule has been broken and a competitive advantage has been gained. Penalties can be up to eight hours per violation.
Time penalties can be added to mandatory stops that each musher must make during the race or to a musher’s final time after reaching Nome. Officials said the two-hour penalty will be added to Seavey’s mandatory 24-hour layover.
The elk was retrieved and the meat was recovered and processed. Iditarod workers in Skwentna were busy distributing the food.
Seavey led Wednesday’s Iditarod, the first musher to leave the checkpoint in the ghost town of Ophir, about 350 miles into the race after staying just 15 minutes. Musher Jessie Holmes arrived first at Ophir, almost two hours earlier than Seavey, but appeared to be resting. Four other mushers were also in Ophir.
The ceremonial beginning was held in Anchorage on Saturday, with the competitive start on Sunday.
This year’s race will feature 38 mushers, who will travel approximately 1,000 miles across two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and along the ice-covered Bering Sea. About ten days after the start, they come off the ice to Main Street in the old gold rush town of Nome for the final push to the finish.