Moose dead, one dog seriously injured
The 2024 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has only just begun, and it has suffered its first casualty in a run-in that left a dog seriously injured.
Dead is a moose that tried to claim the Iditarod Trail as its own. On its way to a veterinary care center is a dog from the team of four-time Iditarod champ Dallas Seavey from Talkeetna.
It had earlier been reported there that Wally Robinson from Nenana and Jessie Holmes from Brushkana Creek had problems on the trail between Skwentna, a small community of just off the Yentna River north of Anchorage, and Finger Lake, where there is an Iditarod checkpoint at the Winterlake Lodge.
Seavey’s Facebook page had at first made light of the incident, reporting that “as mushers make their way to Finger Lake, intriguing reports about the trail have begun to circulate. While we eagerly await updates on Dallas’s team, it’s worth noting that Jessie Holmes was the first to reach the FL checkpoint, and he had quite the tale to tell.
The terrain between Skwentna and Finger Lake is not rugged; it is relatively flat and the trail winds through many open muskegs where mushers can see far ahead. But the trail also darts into some willow thickets and patches of woods where it is easy to surprise a moose, which is apparently what happened with Holmes, Robinson and finally Dallas, who couldn’t avoid the animal and was forced to shot and kill it.
The Robinson page provided this account:
“Last night, in the dark, on a trail with a lot of hills, curving through the trees, Wally and the dogs ran over a moose! It was at the bottom of a hill and they bounced right over it. Earlier, Jesse had punched it in the nose when it was kicking at his dogs. Dallas came along next and the moose attacked.
“Dallas did the only thing he could do and shot the moose to defend himself and his dogs. He said it dropped on his sled so it wasn’t a long shot! The rules say the animal must be cared for so Dallas had the very unenviable task of gutting a moose in the middle of his run. A reminder of how wild and remote the country they are traveling is and how quickly a musher has to respond to danger!”
The author of the post is to be excused for a faulty description of the terrain becuase many reporting on the Iditarod today, including too many in the legacy media, have never been on the trail, but as noted above the trail does wind into patches of forest or willows where it is easy to suprise a moose, and moose are now as common in the area as they were during an earlier period in Iditarod history.
Cycles of nature
Upon arrival in Finger Lake in the 1980s, the now late Susan Butcher, a dominate Iditarod player in those years, would invariably start complaining about all the “mooseholes” punched in the trail in from Skwentna – holes which can lead to dogs suffering shoulder or leg injuries or in some conditions breaking a leg.
Moose numbers in the area were then high. They later dropped precipitiously and by the start of the new millenium, mooseholes – along with the moose that create them – largely ceased to be a problem.
As predator numbers went down, the moose population grew and subsequently – especially in winters such as this with deep snow – the animals again became an issue for mushers, snowmachine riders, fat-tired cyclists, skiers and even walkers on the trail north from Skwentna for about 70 miles to Puntilla Lake on the south slope of the Alaska Range.
When the snow is deep, moose simply do not want to get off the firmly packed trail to wallow around in belly deep snow.
But these moose dangers are not unique to the Iditarod Trail.
In 2022, Holmes got so worried about moose being a danger on his Iditarod training trails along the Denali Highway that he shot at least four of them. It is legal in Alaska to shoot big game animals in defense of life and property, but Holmes was cited for failing to report some of the shootings.
The latest shooting clearly meets the requirements for a legitimate defense of life and property (DLP) shooting in Alaska, and it appears from the looks of the time it took Dallas to go from Skwentna to Finger Lake – his run was several hours longer than that of any of the other top teams – that he followed Iditarod protocol for how to handle a moose shooting.
Race rules stipulate that “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.”
The string of teams following close behind Seavey coming into the Finger Lake checkpoint would indicate that a bunch of other mushers followed the rules as well and that Seavey might have gotten some help in cleaning up the kill. The state usually donates the meat of DLP-killed to those in need.
As of this writing, Iditarod has yet to respond to a request for information about what happened.
Did the moose seriously injure the dog before Dallas shot (felled)him ? The way that the dogs run in pairs, it just seems strange that only one dog was seriously injured by the moose, or may be the dog got sick or was hurt by something else on the condition of the trail.
Or maybe other dogs got injured but not seriously. There isn’t much detail being provided. But the shooting seems clearly legitimate under Alaska law.
Glad Dallas Seavey and Jesse were OK. While I hate to see a moose killed, if it is between a dog and a moose, I support shooting the moose. I advocate all mushers should carry a firearm. This is not the first year that moose have attacked mushers and their dogs. Nor will it be the last. Most moose might be scared off with a shot in the air, but at all times there must be the realization that the life of the musher and the dogs are at stake in an encounter. Self defense.
Shooting in the air does not necessarily scare off a moose, and when it is confronting a dog team the loud sound might cause the opposite reaction. The best strategy is to stop well shot and wait for the moose to get the hell out of the trail, but that doesn’t work all the time either. And sometimes there isn’t time to stop at distance. There is never a good meeting with a moose on the trail in deep snow years. They are programmed not to get off the firm surface into deep snow because that makes them way more vulnerable to a wolf attack in that they can’t kick with their front feet to defend themselves, and I can tell you from experience they can use those front feet like boxers.
Just remember that the Iditarod only counts dog deaths if they die on the field which is why they scoop & go in the airplane real quick…this dog may already be dead but legacy media like ADN will play up the hero role of Dallas in shooting the moose & hope everyone forgets about the dog….by the way, anyone keeping track on how many Dallas has killed or critically injured this season on his quest to become the most “winning” musher? I am thinking we are at a handful already with little bad PR.
The cost of going too fast and not giving adequate notice of your presence has consequences on the road or the trail – where you cant see your lead dog you shorten your team gang and slow your speed – and a few bells on the swing dogs wont go amiss 😉
Thanks for the post Craig. I hope the ITC donates the moose to some worthy person/people along the trail, and that they respond to your requests in a timely manner. Thanks again for reporting and writing about the race you know so well. Rob
Rob,
The moose doesn’t belong to the ITC, but to the state of Alaska and more specifically the people of the state of Alaska, as is noted in the penultimate sentence in the article “The state usually donates the meat of DLP-killed to those in need.”