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'Quest notebook: Third dog dies on Quest' Genesee Keevil, Yukon News - February 23, 2007 ["It's sad, but people and dogs die every day" - Quest race marshal Mike McCowan] Thursday morning, Yukon Quest veteran Kelley Griffin lost Hope. The six-year-old female died on the race trail between Chena Hot Springs and North Pole. A necropsy is in progress. Griffin finished the race in 14th place. If a dog dies: Three dogs died on the Yukon Quest this year. And no mushers were disqualified. "If it's the driver's fault and they did something wrong, or were complicit, then, absolutely, they would be disqualified and held accountable," said race marshal Mike McCowan. But this year, this wasn't the case. "If we disqualified those drivers anyway, then why not just walk up and kick someone in the guts when they're down?" In the mid-'90s, under pressure from the Humane Society, the Iditarod put a rule in place that would disqualify drivers instantly if a dog died on their team. The first year it was in effect, one of Rick Swenson's dogs died on the trail and he was disqualified. "Then, everyone realized how unjust the rule was," said McCowan. The next year, that rule was gone. "If anyone thinks, we say, 'Oh, a dog died, no big deal,' they just don't understand," he said. "Those mushers think about that dog every mile of the way. Those dogs are like family." By disqualifying a musher, it would suggest the death was their fault, he said. "But you shouldn't consider people at fault until you consider the evidence." McCowan compared it to a baby, strapped safely in a child seat, dying in a car that was struck by a speeding truck. "Do you throw the parents driving the car in jail?" he said. "It just doesn't make sense." Even though there is nothing those mushers could have done, they are out their beating the daylights out of themselves, said McCowan. "And it's sad, but people and dogs die everyday." Inhumane treatment of dogs is a huge no-no, he added. "If someone is found complicit, their career is over, and it results in a huge hammer." If a musher is censured in the Quest they cannot run the Iditarod, and vice versa. |