Sled Dog Watchdog: Yukon Quest 'Urban Legend'

I first moved to the Yukon in the early 1990's which was still in the early years of the Quest. I did not
know about the race before moving to Whitehorse. One of my acquaintances in one of those early years
of living here told me that he had heard about a dog musher/trapper skinning a wolf carcass in the middle
of the musher's dog yard, apparently to serve as a lesson that would permanently imprint in the minds of
the dogs to let them know 'who was boss.'

I did not think about this disturbing picture for years...until I was reminded of it by a lady from
Whitehorse who called me in response to a 'letter to the editor' about the Quest I had had published in a
Whitehorse newspaper. This time the lady had a name to attach to the story - the name of a very well
known Yukon Quest and Iditarod musher.

[SleddogWatchdog.com web administrator]

The Toklat male wolf (in Denali National Park, Alaska) howls for his
mate from a snowy plateau near the trapping area, the day after the
trapper took her away. Friendsofanimals.org