All Alaska Sweepstakes
The good news is that the winner of the race has arrived back in Nome and Mitch Seavey wins the $100K:
March 28, 2008, Nome, Alaska
Unofficially, at 11:29:45 pm, Mitch Seavey of Sterling, Alaska, finished the 2008 Centennial running of the All Alaska Sweepstakes Race in 61 hours, 29 minutes and 45 seconds, shattering the 1910 “Iron Man” Johnson Sweepstakes record of 74 hours, 14 minutes and 37 seconds.
The bad news is below the fold:
The Associated Press reports that there has been another snowmobile accident and Lance Mackey’s dog, Zorro was critically injured:
“I would give my life for my dogs,” Mackey said. “I can’t make anyone know how important animals are to me.”
By midday Saturday, Zorro was on a commercial flight to Pet Emergency, a veterinarian facility in Anchorage, for medical treatment. Zorro had broken ribs and perhaps internal injuries.
“If he lives, I don’t think he is going to want to race to Nome again,” Mackey said.
Several other dogs had injuries, but they were not life threatening, Mackey said.
The 9-year-old injured dog has been a star in the teams that won Alaska’s two major long-distance races the last two years. Last year, Zorro became ill at White Mountain near the end of the Iditarod and did not get to finish the race.
Zorro is the kennel’s stud dog. If he dies, Mackey said, his future in sled dog racing is uncertain.
First it was Jennifer Freking’s dog being killed during the Iditarod, and now this. Lance Mackey is serious about the effect on his kennel and racing if Zorro dies, and the sport would lose a two great competitors.
Maybe they should start issuing RPGs to mushers to deal with snowmobiles, as apparently the drivers aren’t smart enough to figure out that you shouldn’t being running on the trails at night during a race.
3 comments
$20/gall9n gasoline would fix that. or maybe not.
do the reckless snowmobilers ever get ticketed or fined or sent to jail or something?
they make reflective vests for dogs to wear, but the poor pups get overheated. and you can put reflectors, or even flashing lights on their collars and harnesses, but if the dog has a fluffy stand-off coat, not even the flashing lights are visible until it’s too late. besides, the dogs are already working hard, they shouldn’t have to carry extra weight, or wear more restrictive gear.
I guess snowmobiles must be the jet skis of the north. Every summer… often enough several times in a summer… some idiot down here gets full of beer and damages or kills himself, or often enough, someone else, doing some damn fool thing with a jet ski.
I understand the excitement of jet-skiing or snowmobiling, but I just don’t understand the thrill of doing something that can kill an innocent dog or human. I do hope there are some legal consequences for the perpetrator of this tragedy.
Alaska has the laws, but there aren’t many law enforcers, so people tend to do things on their own outside the cities. I’m not even sure if the mushers can identify the drivers, as they were more concerned with their dogs.
The All Alaska is sponsored by the Nome Kennel Club and they have very strict rules about caring for dogs during the event. Mistreatment of dogs results in your entire team being forfeit to the Club, so this is especially tragic that some provisions weren’t made to protect teams.
Snowmobiles are a necessary evil in Alaska, but something will have to be done to protect teams, or people will not support the races. Zorro is an extremely important bloodline among sled dogs, and if it is lost because of an idiot on a snowmobile, there will be backlash, even in the libertarian environment of Alaska. The races are the economy in many small towns, and this threat can’t be ignored.