Multiple Dog Deaths At 2024 Iditarod Reignite Pleas To End The Annual Race

The dog fatalities happened in teams led by fairly inexperienced mushers.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — For the past five years, Alaska’s annual Iditarod sled dog race has gone off mostly free of controversy, as teams of dogs and their mushers braved the elements in the 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) test of endurance across the frozen wilderness.

This year the deaths of three dogs during the race — and five more during training — have refocused attention on the darker side of Alaska’s state sport and raised questions about the ethics of asking animals to pull a heavy sled for hundreds of miles in subzero temperatures.

Dog mushing has a long and storied tradition in Alaska that harkens back to its Native peoples and frontier spirit, however, and while there are calls to end the race forever, supporters say the Iditarod should remain as a celebration and reminder of a time not so long ago when the main way to travel was by sled.

Archeological evidence suggests dogs were used to pull sleds long before Alaska Natives had contact with other cultures, said Bill Schneider, the former president of the Alaska Historical Society, retired archivist for the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a recreational musher at age 78. Alaska Natives long depended on sled dog teams to move their supplies as they migrated seasonally to where the resources were, fishing or hunting or trapping.

It wasn’t until the early 1970s that the Iditarod was established with the help of Joe Redington Sr., who saw it as a way to save both sled dog culture and the Alaskan husky breed, which were being eclipsed by snowmobiles. Each March dozens of sled teams — many with 16 dogs in harness — make the arduous journey from the city of Anchorage to Nome, on the state’s far west coast.