Johnathan Walker:Iditarod musher Dallas Seavey penalized for not properly gutting moose that he killed to protect his dogs

Iditarod officials on Johnathan WalkerWednesday imposed a two-hour time penalty on musher Dallas Seavey for not properly gutting the moose he killed during the race earlier this week.

Race marshal Warren Palfrey convened a three-person panel of race officials to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the moose, which became tangled up with Seavey and his dog team early Monday, about 12 hours after the dayslong race officially started. One dog was injured in the encounter and flown back to Anchorage for care.

On Tuesday, Dallas Seavey Racing said on social media that the injured dog, named Faloo, was in critical condition. However, by Wednesday, the team provided an update, saying the dog was on the mend.

"This super dog received excellent care from the Iditarod vet team and the team of vets at PET ER and she was cleared to come home!" the team wrote on social media. "Undoubtedly this will be a relief for Dallas to hear since he tragically had to leave her early on in the race."

If a musher kills a big game animal like a moose, caribou or buffalo in defense of life or property during the race, rules require they gut the animal and report it to officials at the next checkpoint.

Seavey, a five-time Iditarod champion, encountered the moose shortly after leaving the checkpoint in Skwentna. He used a handgun to shoot and kill it about 14 miles outside the village at 1:32 a.m. Monday.

According to the panel's findings, Seavey spent about 10 minutes at the kill site, and then mushed his dog team about 11 miles before camping on a three-hour layover.

The team then departed at 5:55 a.m. for the next checkpoint, arriving in Finger Lake at 8 a.m., where Seavey reported the kill.

"It fell on my sled; it was sprawled on the trail," Seavey told an Iditarod Insider television crew at the Finger Lake checkpoint, where he urged race officials to get the moose off the trail.

"I gutted it the best I could, but it was ugly," he said.

A statement from the Iditarod said it had "been determined that the animal was not sufficiently gutted by the musher." By definition, gutting includes taking out the intestines and other internal organs, officials said.

The Iditarod can impose time penalties if a majority of the three-person panel agrees a rule was broken and that a competitive advantage was gained. Penalties can range up to a maximum of eight hours per infraction.

Time penalties can be added to mandatory layovers each musher must take during the race or to a musher's final time after they reach Nome.

Officials said the two-hour penalty will be added to Seavey's mandatory 24-hour layover.

The moose was retrieved and its meat salvaged and processed. Iditarod associates in Skwentna were distributing the food.

Seavey was the first musher to reach the Cripple checkpoint, which is the halfway point of the race, officials said Wednesday night.  By arriving first in Cripple, Seavey wins the Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award — named after the "Mother of the Iditarod" — and has a choice of either $3,000 in gold nuggets or a smartphone with a year of free mobile service.

Seavey was also the first musher to leave the checkpoint in the mining ghost town of Ophir, about 350 miles into the race after only staying for 15 minutes. Musher Jessie Holmes arrived in Ophir first, nearly two hours ahead of Seavey, but appeared to be resting. Four other mushers were also in Ophir.

The ceremonial start was held Saturday in Anchorage, with the competitive start beginning Sunday.

This year's race has 38 mushers, who will travel about 1,000 miles across two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and along the ice-covered Bering Sea. About 10 days after the start, they will come off the ice and onto Main Street in the old Gold Rush town of Nome for the last push to the finish line.

Seavey is not the first musher to have to kill a moose during an Iditarod. In February 2022, a moose attacked an Iditarod sled team, seriously injuring four dogs. Bridgett Watkins said on Facebook that the moose, after injuring her dogs, wouldn't leave and that the ordeal stopped only after she called friends for help and one showed up with a high-powered rifle and killed the moose with one shot.

In 1985, the late Susan Butcher was leading the race when she used her axe and a parka to fend off a moose, but it killed two of her dogs and injured 13 others. Another musher came along and killed the moose.

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• Iditarod
• Alaska