Three Iditarod dogs die on trail
During their long race to Nome this week, three young male dogs from three different mushing teams collapsed and died on the Iditarod Trail.
The first incident took place at 9:46 a.m. on Sunday morning. Just 200 feet from the Nulato checkpoint, a 2-year-old male named Bog on rookie musher Isaac Teaford’s team collapsed. Teaford was driving a dog team out of Dallas Seavey’s kennel. Attempts to revive Bog via CPR were unsuccessful, according to the Iditarod Trail Committee.
Later that evening, the organization announced that another dog, a 4year-old male named George on musher Hunter Keefe’s team, died that day, too. George had collapsed around 10 a.m. on the trail about 35 miles outside of Kaltag on the way to Unalakleet. Keefe was driving a team out of Raymie Redington’s kennel.
Then, on Tuesday morning around 10:15 a.m., a 3-year-old dog named Henry on Calvin Daugherty’s team collapsed outside of Shaktoolik. Daugherty was driving a team out of Mitch Seavey’s kennel.
“Daugherty administered CPR but unfortunately the attempts to revive Henry were unsuccessful,” the Iditarod Trail Committee said in a press release Tuesday afternoon.
Teaford, Keefe and Calvin Daugherty and all scratched from the race after the incidents.
Changes to the Iditarod’s Rule 42 adopted ahead of the 2019 race now require mushers to voluntarily scratch from the race—or else be withdrawn—after any dog death.
The rule states that this withdrawal doesn’t imply any deliberate misconduct or violation on behalf of the musher. The policy allows the race marshal to make exceptions for “unpreventable hazards” involved in wilderness travel, such as a moose encounter, and other circumstances.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Iditarod Trail Committee still did not publicly release a cause of death for any of the dogs. Both Bog and George had undergone a gross necropsy by a pathologist, but further testing was needed to complete the studies, the race committee said in its press releases.
Rule 42 also states that a dog care panel will review any dog deaths within 30 days of the race’s end.
That panel is supposed to include three independent investigators, who will consult with the race marshal, chief veterinarian, and the mushers involved.
The panel’s findings will then be reported to the Iditarod Trail Committee’s Board so that the organizers can “gain insights that may help shape future race rules or protocols to achieve zero dog deaths.”
A musher could be disqualified if that panel ultimately finds that their dog’s death was the result of neglect or abusive treatment, or if the cause of death was heat stress, hyperthermia or hypothermia.
The last reported dog death in the race occurred in 2019.
Teaford has been a handler for the Seavey family and was running the race with dogs from their kennel. After Dallas Seavey arrived in Nome to win his sixth Iditarod, he addressed Teaford’s situation during his post-race press conference.
“He is a very, very good person,” Seavey said. “You don’t find many that…want to do well, they do their best…so what happened to him is tough.”
Seavey expressed dissatisfaction with the rule that required Teaford to drop out of the race.
“I’ll be blunt, I don’t like the rule,” Seavey said. “I don’t think there’s anything that Isaac could have done possibly different. And maybe I’m speaking out of turn because I just finished the race. But in general, I don’t understand…who was saved or helped in that situation? Just how did that improve the situation? So I understand we need to have the rules…we also have to have some common sense.”
Seavey expressed worry that the policy would discourage mushers from coming back to the competition.
“It’s been a tough five years, and [Teaford] has powered through it,” Seavey said. “He’s had some really bad days, and every single time, he shakes it off, puts a smile on his face and comes back to work the next day and takes on the next challenge. Finally—finally—it’s his turn to get out on the trail after he’s helped many other handlers there. And then this happens.”