Iditarod officials on Wednesday imposed a two-hour time penalty on musher Dallas Seavey for not properly gutting the moose he killed during the race earlier this week.
Race marshal Warren Palfrey convened a three-person panel of race officials to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the moose, which became tangled up with Seavey and his dog team early Monday, about 12 hours after the dayslong race officially started. One dog was injured in the encounter and flown back to Anchorage for care.
If a musher kills a big game animal like a moose, caribou or buffalo in defense of life or property during the race, rules require they gut the animal and report it to officials at the next checkpoint.
Seavey, a five-time Iditarod champion, encountered the moose shortly after leaving the checkpoint in Skwentna. He used a handgun to shoot and kill it about 14 miles (22 kilometers) outside the village at 1:32 a.m. Monday.
According to the panel’s findings, Seavey spent about 10 minutes at the kill site, and then mushed his dog team about 11 miles (18 kilometers) before camping on a three-hour layover.
The team then departed at 5:55 a.m. for the next checkpoint, arriving in Finger Lake at 8 a.m., where Seavey reported the kill.
“It fell on my sled; it was sprawled on the trail,” Seavey told an Iditarod Insider television crew at the Finger Lake checkpoint, where he urged race officials to get the moose off the trail.
