A severe winter storm on the last leg of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog this year, which eventually forced six mushers to leave on the same day, has now resulted in three mushers being punished for taking their dogs in instead of leaving them outside in harsh conditions.
Denmark’s Mille Porsild, Canada’s Michelle Phillips and Fairbanks’ Riley Dyche were fined for taking dogs to shelter huts to ride out a storm with winds so strong they created conditions for whites, Anchorage Daily News reported on Friday.
The decision to punish the mushers was made by race marshal Mark Nordman, who said resting in the dog house represented a competitive advantage over the teams that followed them to Nome.
“Without a doubt, Michel and Millais did the right thing for their dogs,” Nordman said. “But it also had an impact on the future of rider competition.”
Porsild dropped from 14th to 17th, while Phillips dropped one notch to 18th. Dyche was not demoted in the standings, but was fined $1,000 after officials determined that there were no other mushers around him who could be influenced by dogs resting inside.
The demotion of the three riders, which was not widely publicized in the Iditarod, immediately drew a sharp reaction from the main critic of the race, Peta.
“Nothing makes it clearer that this deadly race must end than the fact that the Iditarod fined the mushers as punishment for their actions to prevent dog deaths,” Peta executive vice president Tracey Reiman said in a statement.
She called for ill-treatment charges against drovers who left their dogs on the street while they themselves entered the shelter’s huts. “Brutality has stuck in this death race and it’s time for it to stop.”
Porsild defended her decision to bring the dogs inside.
“Stopping and keeping the dogs in the cabin of the shelter did not give Michelle and me any advantage in the competition. On the contrary: we both lost the advantage we had, especially me and my team,” she wrote in the Daily News from Denmark.
Iditarod rules state that dogs should not be taken to shelters except for medical examination or treatment by veterinarians.
However, the entry immediately after this in the Iditarod rulebook reads: “There will be no cruel or inhumane treatment of dogs. Cruel or inhumane treatment includes any act or omission that causes preventable pain or suffering to a dog.”
Four riders – Matt Hall, three-time champion Mitch Seavey, Lev Schwartz and former champion Joar Leifset Ulsom – filed complaints against Porsild and Phillips. Hall and Seavey moved up one position when Porsild and Phillips were demoted and Schwartz moved up two positions.
“I had no doubt that my dogs sitting unprotected in such conditions could result in the death or death of dogs,” Porsild wrote in an email to Nordman after the race, explaining why she did it.
The almost 1,000-mile (1,609 km) race across Alaska was won on March 15 by Brent Sass.