You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.
When a good boy or good girl’s life is on the line, you really have to take matters into your own hands. That’s exactly what an Alaskan musher (driver of a dogsled) did when a moose got tangled up in his team of sled dogs.
Dallas Seavey was racing in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race this past week when the unthinkable happened. A moose had wandered onto the trail, and even though Seavey pleaded with officials to remove the moose, they chose not to, and it ended up costing the moose its life.
That’s because as Seavey and his sled dogs traversed the trail near the moose, the large animal became entangled with some of the dogs and the musher, and even badly injured one of the canines. That dog’s name was Faloo, and it’s reportedly in critical condition after it was flighted to a veterinarian clinic during the race:
“As a result of an angry moose on the trail, Faloo was flown into Anchorage and was taken to an Anchorage Vet Clinic. Faloo arrived in critical condition and soon after arriving she went into surgery.
We received an update yesterday evening that she is out of surgery and remains in critical condition. We promise to keep you all updated once we receive more updates.”
Seavey, a 5-time winner of the Iditarod, says he had no choice put to shoot the moose with a handgun out of self defense for himself and the sled dogs. He told the Iditarod Insider, a television crew covering the race, this when they asked what happened:
“It fell on my sled, it was sprawled on the trail. I gutted it the best I could, but it was ugly.”
And you might be reading that and asking “Why did he have to gut the moose after he killed it?” Well, strange enough, its actually required within the rules of the race.
As the AP stated:
“Race rules state that if a big game animal like a moose, caribou or buffalo is killed in defense of life or property, the musher must gut the animal and report it to race officials at the next checkpoint.”
Just to be transparent, the Iditarod might be my new favorite sporting event. Why did it never pop up on my sports betting app? I would have loved to see what the odds were for “Musher Will Have To Gut A Moose.”
The 2024 Iditarod, which is a 1,000 mile race in total, should wrap up sometime next week when the victorious musher crosses the finish line in Nome, Alaska. You can never count out Dallas Seavey, even though he’s short a dog after the horrific moose incident early on in the race.
You can view more about the story in the video below:
