Sun, Mar 03, 2024 page7

• Dogs get neon harnesses as Iditarod prepares for start

  • AP, ANCHORAGE, Alaska
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  The Iditarod, the annual sled dog race celebrating Alaska’s official state sport, was to start yesterday with a new focus on safety after five dogs died and eight were injured in collisions with snowmobiles while training on shared, multi-use trails.

  For the first time, mushers who line up for the ceremonial start in Anchorage were to have the chance to snag light-up, neon harnesses or necklaces for their dogs before they begin the days-long race that takes the dog-and-human sled teams about 1,600km over Alaska’s unforgiving terrain.

  The 38 mushers are to trace a course across two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and along the ice-covered Bering Sea.

  

  Musher Dutch Johnson, a kennel manager at the August Foundation, runs a dog team on trails in Chugiak, Alaska, on Jan. 23.

  Photo: AP

  In about 10 days, they are to come off the ice and onto Main Street in the old Gold Rush town of Nome for the last push to the finish line.

  Mushers always have contended with Alaska’s deep winter darkness and whiteout conditions, but the recent dog deaths even while training have put a focus on making the four-legged athletes easier to see at all times.

  Mushers typically wear a bright headlamp for visibility, but that does not protect lead dogs running about 18m in front of the sled.

  “I can’t make snowmachiners act responsibly, it’s just not going to happen, but I can help make dogs more visible,” said Dutch Johnson, manager of the August Foundation kennel, which finds homes for retired racing sled dogs.

  Two dogs were killed and seven were injured in November last year on a team belonging to five-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey on a remote Alaska highway used as a training trail in the winter.

  It has recently become more popular with snowmobilers, bikers and other users, making it more dangerous for dogs.

  Seavey wrote on social media that the snowmobile was heading in the opposite direction at about 105kph when it slammed into the lead dogs on the team.

  The snowmobile driver was later cited for negligent driving.

  In December last year, musher Mike Parker was running dogs for veteran Iditarod competitor Jim Lanier on the Denali Highway when a snowmobile driven by a professional rider struck the dog team. Three dogs died and another was injured.

  The driver, Erik Johnson, was testing snowmobiles for his employer, Minnesota-based manufacturer Polaris, and both were cited for reckless driving.

  Julie St Louis, cofounder and director for the August Foundation, is close to the Lanier family and knew the dogs involved. When brainstorming with Johnson, they decided to use the nonprofit foundation to help outfit the dogs with harnesses and necklaces.

  “It was one way we could step up and do something that was still within our mission, because we’re all about keeping the dogs safe,” St Louis said.

  The foundation has since secured an US$8,500 grant from the Polaris Foundation and raised another US$2,500 to buy 400 light-up harnesses, which were handed out to mushers at sled dog races in Fairbanks and Bethel earlier this winter.

  The harnesses shine with bright neon-like colors that help illuminate the dogs in the darkness of the Alaska winter and pierce the clouds of snow sometimes kicked up by snowmachines, what Alaskans call snowmobiles.

  They are now accepting donations to outfit as many dog teams as possible. Providing each team with four harnesses or lighted necklaces and one illuminated vest for the musher costs US$120.

  A separate effort, called Light Up the Lead Dogs, is raising money to buy lighted collars for dogs.

  In each of the incidents, Johnson said that the snowmobile that hit the dogs was riding behind another snowmobile, which obscured visibility by kicking up snow.

  “What I’ve witnessed with these harnesses is they make a halo effect in that dust,” Johnson said. “So they do give you some warning of where the lead dogs are.”
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