ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A veteran musher had to kill a moose after it injured his dog shortly after the start of this year's Iditarod, race officials said Monday.
Dallas Seavey told Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race officials early Monday morning that he was forced to shoot the moose with a pistol in self-defense.
This happened “after the moose became entangled with the dogs and the musher,” the race said in a statement.
Seavey, who has the most Iditarod wins ever with five, said he urged officials to get the moose off the trail.
“It fell on my sled and was sprawled out on the trail,” Seavey told an Iditarod Insider television crew. “I gutted it as best I could, but it was ugly.”
Seavey, who turned 37 on Monday, is not the first musher to have to kill a moose during an Iditarod. In 1985, the late Susan Butcher was leading the race when she used her ax and a parka to fend off a moose, but it killed two of her dogs and injured 13 others. Another musher came by and killed the moose.
Butcher was forced to abandon the race but won four Iditarods. She died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 51.
This year's race started Sunday afternoon in Willow, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) north of Anchorage. Seavey encountered the moose just before 2 a.m. Monday, 14 miles (22 kilometers) outside the race checkpoint in Skwentna, on the way to the next checkpoint 50 miles (80 kilometers) away in Finger Lake.
Seavey arrived in Finger Lake later Monday, where he dropped off a dog that had been injured in the encounter with the moose. The dog was flown to Anchorage where he was examined by a veterinarian.
Alaska State Troopers were notified of the dead elk and race officials said every effort would be made to save the meat.
Race rules state that if a large game animal such as a moose, caribou or buffalo is killed to protect life or property, the musher must gut the animal and report it to race officials at the nearest checkpoint. Mushers who comply must, if possible, help gut the animal, the rules say.
New race director Warren Palfrey said he would continue to gather information about the meet in light of the rules, according to the Iditarod statement.
Musher Paige Drobny confirmed to race officials that the moose was dead and in the middle of the course when she arrived in Finger Lake on Monday.
“Yeah, like my team went over it like it was 'middle of the road,'” she said.
Seavey wasn't the first musher to encounter a moose on this leg of the race.
Race director Jessie Holmes, a member of National Geographic's reality TV show “Life Below Zero” about life in rural Alaska, had an encounter between these two checkpoints, but it is not clear whether it was the same moose.
“I had to punch a moose in the nose out there,” he told a camera crew, but gave no further details.
The 1,000-mile (1,609 kilometers) race across Alaska will end sometime next week when the winning musher leaves the ice of the Bering Sea and crosses the dimpled finish line in Nome.
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This story has been corrected to show the checkpoint is in Skwentna.