Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey killed a moose after his dog was injured on Monday morning of the 2024 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race outside of Skwentna, Alaska, per an Iditarod press release.
Seavey told the race’s officials that out of self-defense, he was forced to shoot the moose with a handgun. The 37-year-old killed the moose after the animal “became entangled with the dogs and the musher,” per the race’s statement.
“It fell on my sled, it was sprawled on the trail,” Seavey told an Iditarod Insider television crew, per the Associated Press. “I gutted it the best I could, but it was ugly.”
The five-time Iditarod winner encountered the moose 14 miles outside the race checkpoint in Skwentna on Monday at 1:43 a.m. He and the dogs were en route to the next checkpoint in Finger Lake, approximately 50 miles away.
Once he arrived at Finger Lake, he dropped off the injured dog, who was then flown to Anchorage, Alaska, to be evaluated by a veterinarian. Alaska State Troopers were alerted by Race Marshal Warren Palfrey that the moose’s body remained on the trail.
“With help from snowmobile-aided support in the area, we are making sure that every attempt is made to utilize and salvage the moose meat,” Palfrey said in the statement. The Marshal added that he is investigating the incident as it pertains to the race’s rule about “killing of game animals.”
An “edible big game animal” is identified as moose, caribou, or buffalo and can be “killed in defense of life or property.” The competitor is required to “gut the animal and report the incident to a race official at the next checkpoint. Following teams must help gut the animal when possible.”
Additionally, if any teams pass the musher gutting the animal, they cannot pass until the musher has killed and gutted the animal.
Paige Drobny, a musher who was also competing in the 2024 race, confirmed with Iditarod officials at the Finger Lake checkpoint that the animal’s carcass was still in the middle of the trail, per the Associated Press. “Yeah, like my team went up and over it, like it’s that ‘in the middle of the trail,’” said Drobny.
Seavey and Drobny were not the only competitors to cross paths with a moose during that point of the race.
Jessie Holmes also encountered a moose between the Skwentna and Finger Lake checkpoints — but it has not been confirmed if it was the same moose Seavey killed. “I had to punch a moose in the nose out there,” said Holmes, reports the Associated Press.
The 2024 race started Sunday afternoon in Willow, Alaska. The 1,000-mile race which occurs across Alaska is expected to end next week after the first musher crosses the finish line in Nome.
