Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey killed a moose after his dog was injured Monday morning in the 2024 Iditarod Trail Dog Race outside Skwentna, Alaska, according to an Iditarod press release.
Seavey told race officials that he was forced to shoot the moose with a gun in self-defense. The 37-year-old killed the moose after the animal “tangled with the dogs and the musher,” according to a race statement.
“He fell on my sled, he was laid out on the trail,” Seavey told the Iditarod Insider television crew, according to the Associated Press. – I lost him as best I could, but it was ugly.
Dallas Seavey on March 2, 2024 in Anchorage, Alaska.
AP Photo/Mark Thiessen
A woman from Alaska was hit in the head by a moose while she was walking her dog — watch the shocking video!
The five-time Iditarod winner encountered a moose 14 miles outside the race’s Skwentna checkpoint at 1:43 a.m. Monday. He and the dogs were on their way to the next checkpoint at Finger Lake, about 50 miles away.
When he arrived in Finger Lake, he left the injured dog behind, which was then flown to Anchorage, Alaska, to be examined by a veterinarian. Alaska State Police were alerted by Marshal Warren Palfrey that a moose carcass was left on the trail.
“With the help of snowmobile support in the area, we are ensuring that every effort is made to utilize and save the elk meat,” Palfrey said in a statement. The marshal added that he was investigating the incident as it related to the race’s “killing game” rule.
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Dallas Seavey on March 15, 2011 in Willow, Alaska.
Bob Hallinen/Anchorage Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty
A “large edible animal” is identified as moose, caribou or buffalo and can be “killed in defense of life or property.” The competitor is required to “eviscerate the animal and report the incident to the race official at the next checkpoint. The following teams must assist the animal to eviscerate when possible.”
Additionally, if any team passes a musher who is removing an animal, they cannot pass until the musher has killed and gutted the animal.
Paige Drobny, a musher who also competed 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 course, the Associated Press reports. “Yeah, like my team went above and beyond, like it’s ‘middle of the road,'” Drobny said.
Seavey and Drobny weren’t the only competitors to encounter moose during that point of the race.
Jessie Holmes also came across a moose between the Skwentna and Finger Lake checkpoints – but it was not confirmed if it was the same moose that Seavey killed. “I had to hit the moose in the nose,” Holmes said, according to the Associated Press.
Iditarod sled dog found 3 months after disappearing from checkpoint: ‘Life is good’
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Dallas Seavey on March 4, 2017 in Anchorage, Alaska.
AP Photo/Michael Dinneen
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The 2024 race started Sunday afternoon in Willow, Alaska. The 1,000-mile race across Alaska is expected to end next week after the first musher crosses the finish line in Nome.
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Source: HIS Education