Musk oxen kill elderly sled dog
A pair of musk oxen attacked and fatally injured a 15-year-old retired sled dog on Sunday, June 7. The dog belongs to Jeff and Peggy Darling and was one of three remaining sled dogs who ran with Jeff Darling in the 2008 the All Alaska Sweepstakes sled dog race. “They’re elders and healthy,” said Darling.
On that day the herd came into the Darling’s yard on Lester Bench Road in the DOT area of Nome. They were going toward the dogs and Darling was able to drive them off with her truck. That night, Monday morning around 4 a.m. there was a lot of commotion in the yard and she went outside. “The herd was back behind my house again,” she said. The two musk ox bulls who stand guard for the herd advanced toward the dog, who was tied up, and they pummeled him. “They crushed him, they gored him,” said Darling. “I was able to get them off the dog and run them off with the truck.”
This is the third dog belonging to the Darlings that has been killed by musk oxen. Seven of their dogs have been injured and it is the fifth attack in three or four years, she said.
Darling believes a longterm solution would be to impress upon the herd that they should stay away. “I would think that if right in the beginning of spring that if we were to keep chasing them out that they would stop thinking this is a safe place to be,” she said. “Shy of not making them so comfortable and not running them out of town on a regular basis until they learn that this isn’t where we want to have their babies anymore I think they’re going to continue to come back.”
Darling would like to see some culling of the herd, which she sees as getting pretty large. “I know Fish and Game recommends the only way to keep these out is to build a fence,” she said. “That is very cost prohibitive. And in the winter time when you’re trying to plow snow I don’t see how that works. For myself I’m at the end of the line. I’m not going to get more dogs. This is the end of it for me.”
This particular herd numbers about 30 and resides along Center Creek Road. Sunday evening they were grazing near the Nome Monofill site.