Moose Gate Fallout: Dallas Seavey Penalized Two Hours In Iditarod For Not Properly Gutting Animal

You can’t make this stuff up. Five-time Iditarod winner Dallas Seavey’s moose encounter, when he said he had to kill an animal that got entangled with his dog team, proved to be a costly moment. Race officials penalized Seavey for not properly gutting the moose, per race rules. Here’s Alaska Public Media and the Anchorage Daily News with more on this only-in-Alaska bizarre story:

For the infraction, the Iditarod Trail Committee said Wednesday, Seavey is receiving a two-hour time penalty, which will be added on to the 24-hour mandatory rest Seavey appears likely to take at the checkpoint of Cripple, 425 miles into the race.

Seavey reported that he’d shot the moose outside of Skwentna early Monday after it began attacking his dogs, one of which had to be flown to Anchorage for emergency surgery after the incident. Upon arriving at the next checkpoint at Finger Lake, he told Iditarod Insider, “I gutted it as best I could, but it was ugly.”

The Iditarod has explicit rules about dispatching large, edible wildlife in the course of the race, and deemed Seavey’s compliance to have been substandard.