It’s been a tough Iditarod sled dog race for the five-time winner Dallas Seavey.
First, his dogs became
entangled with a moose, leaving one of the dogs injured. Then, he shot the moose. And then, by race rules, he had to stop the sled to gut the moose.
But it seems a desultory moose-gutting just won’t do. You have to get in there and really gut that moose. Seavey, officials determined, did not.
Yes, it’s true: Seavey faces a two-hour penalty in the world’s biggest sled dog race for not gutting a moose well enough.
The Iditarod is indeed a different kind of sporting event.
The story started with the moose encounter near Skwentna, Alaska, that was reported by race officials early Monday. The injured dog, Faloo, was flown to Anchorage in critical condition and underwent surgery.
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“With the well-being of his team in mind, Dallas made the tough decision to fell the moose,” said a statement on
his Facebook page. Sledders are permitted to carry firearms for just such an eventuality.
“It was on a downhill,” Seavey said in a video posted by
Iditarod Insider. “It fell on my sled. It sprawled.”
The
rules of the Iditarod, the annual race that stretches roughly 1,000 miles across Alaska, state: “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.”
It can turn into a community effort: “Following teams must help gut the animal when possible. No teams may pass until the animal has been gutted.”
The rules are in place so that the meat of the animal can be salvaged and something positive can come from the death. Race organizers said the meat had been processed and was being distributed.
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Unfortunately, Seavey’s effort did not make the grade. “The animal was not sufficiently gutted by the musher,” race organizers said. He spent roughly 10 minutes at the site, the race said in a statement. It helpfully added a definition of “gutting” for city slickers: “Taking out the intestines and other internal organs of (a fish or other animal) before cooking it.”
In addition, the moose caused problems for some of the subsequent racers: “It’s dead in the middle of the trail,”
the musher Paige Drobny said. “My team went up and over it.” Another musher, Jessie Holmes, told other racers he had punched a moose in the area where Seavey had his encounter, according to Seavey’s Facebook page. It was unclear whether it was the same moose.
A three-person panel, presumably stocked with experts in the art of gutting, determined unanimously that, as a penalty, Seavey would have to extend the mandatory 24-hour rest that all mushers take to 26 hours.
“Dallas will be evaluating and strategizing for the next portion of the race in spite of the difficulties,” his Facebook page said.
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Seavey was leading the Iditarod at the midway point of this year’s race. Credit...Kerry Tasker/Reuters
“I gutted it as best I could, but it was ugly,” Seavey confessed in the video interview. “You don’t want a picture of that in your hunting collection.”
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Now that’s (sorry) mush ado about gutting.
Iditarod officials did not respond to a request for comment on the specifics of how Seavey’s gutting skills fell short. Seavey, meanwhile, was out on the trail and, moose or no,
led the race as of Thursday morning local time. The race, which started Sunday, was expected go on for four or five more days.
Seavey was also the top racer at the halfway point. As a prize, he can choose either a smartphone or $3,000 in gold nuggets.
And now the news you’ve waded through all that gutting talk for: After surgery, Faloo, the injured dog, has been cleared to come home.
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