A fierce winter storm in the last stretch of this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that ultimately forced six mushers to scratch the same day has cost three other mushers for sheltering their dogs instead of leaving them outside in the harsh conditions.
Mille Porsild of Denmark, Michelle Phillips of Canada and Riley Dyche of Fairbanks, Alaska, were penalized for taking dogs inside shelter cabins to ride out the storm with winds so strong they whipped up whiteout conditions, the Anchorage Daily News reported on Friday.
The decision to punish the mushers was made by race marshal Mark Nordman, who said the indoor rest for the dogs amounted to a competitive advantage over teams that trailed them into Nome.
Photo: Reuters
“No doubt that Michelle and Mille did the right thing for their dogs,” Nordman said. “But it also affected the competition for racers going forward.”
Porsild was dropped from 14th to 17th position, while Phillips dropped one notch to 18th. Dyche was not demoted in the standings, but he was fined US$1,000 after officials determined there were no other mushers close to him that would have been affected by the dogs resting inside.
The drop in finishing position equated to US$3,450 less for Porsild and US$1,000 less for Phillips.
The 1,510km race across Alaska was won on March 15 by Brent Sass, who was also affected by the storm just as he was nearing the finish line in Nome.
He said he fell off the sled and could not see anything, and thought he was going to have to hunker down with his dogs and ride out the storm.
“Stopping and having the dogs in the shelter cabin gave Michelle and I no competition edge; on the contrary we both lost the edge we had — especially me and my team,” Porsild wrote to the Daily News from Denmark.
Iditarod rules say dogs cannot be taken inside shelters except for race veterinarians’ medical examination or treatment.
However, the entry immediately after that one in the Iditarod rule book says: “There will be no cruel or inhumane treatment of dogs. Cruel or inhumane treatment involves any action or inaction, which causes preventable pain or suffering to a dog.”
“There was no doubt to me that my dogs sitting unprotected in these conditions could lead to death or deaths of dog[s],” Porsild wrote in an e-mail to Nordman after the race, explaining why she did it.
“With no natural wind breaks or materials available to shelter them I made what I felt was the best choice for my dog’s welfare in that extreme situation,” Phillips wrote on Facebook.
Dyche told the newspaper that he knew it was a contravention of the rules to bring dogs inside, but he had no choice after failing to improvise a windbreak for the dogs.
As he sat in the cabin with the dogs for the next 24 hours and heard the winds hammer the cabin, he knew he made the right decision, he added.
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