There Are Jerks Everywhere
Fairbanks News-Miner has a bare-bones report of the incident:
“Race officials said [Aliy] Zirkle, currently running in third place, was approaching Nulato when a person on a snowmobile repeatedly attempted to harm her.
One dog on her team received injuries that officials described as non-life-threatening.
[Jeff] King, a four-time Iditarod champion, was behind Zirkle and fared worse.
King was 12 miles from Nulato when three of his dogs were hit by the snowmobile.
Nash, a 3-year-old male, was killed. Crosby, another 3-year-old male, and Banjo, a 2-year-old male, received injuries and are expected to survive.”
Nulato is a small community so “a suspect has been identified” and I would guess that “chemicals” were involved.
If you read the rest of the article, there is confusion: Dallas Seavey won the race last year and he is the son of Mitch Seavey, who is leading at Noon CST in Kaltag.
Update: One Arnold Demoski, 26, of Nulato is currently ‘enjoying the hospitality of the Alaska State Police while helping them with their inquiries’. Mr. Demoski said he was drunk.
Nash and Crosby were part of the same 4 puppy litter. Their other litter mates were Stills & Young.
4 comments
So sad. I don’t understand the kind of person who could hurt puppies, drunk or no.
No matter what the law does to him, the tribe won’t forget. He dishonored his people.
Yep, I agree with Badtux. Lots of people drink a bit more than is good for them, but certainly wouldn’t harm an animal. This guy’s got some serious mental problems to do that.
Glad to hear that the tribe won’t forget. He surely dishonored his people and the ideals of the sledders in the Iditarod. What a horrifying event to stand there watching all this happen and not being able to stop it. Those poor dogs. For his sake, I hope Aliy and Jeff don’t have a chance to get their hands on him. Without his snowmobile, I expect he wouldn’t stand a chance. Most people who like to throw their power around are cowards when it comes right down to it.
The trail is 40 feet wide and the new moon was on the 8th. The headlamps they use today are brighter than the headlights on most of the cars I drove in the 1960. At 3AM the lights from Aliy and Jeff would have been reflecting off the snow and ice on the Yukon. He probably intended to scare them with a close pass but was too impaired to control it for that kind of precision maneuver. If he could steer the snowmachine [Alaskan for snowmobile] he could see and avoid them on a 40 foot trail. The majority of people as drunk as he claimed to be drive about 5MPH which is why the get stopped and questioned.