Mackey's dog Zorro unable to walk
Lance Mackey's dog Zorro -- injured when the Iditarod champion's sled was rear-ended by a snowmobile during the All Alaska Sweepstakes race -- was flown from Anchorage to Seattle on Sunday for a test on his spine.
There, the dog, unable to walk or stand up, was to see a specialist and get an MRI.
Tonya Mackey, Lance's wife, said there was a 50-50 chance that the dog will never walk again.
Mackey was in third place around midnight Friday and closing in on the finish line when two snowmobiles came up fast behind his team, according to the Associated Press. Mackey said he shone his headlamp right in the face of the snowmobiler, but he kept coming.
Mackey jumped to the side. He found his sled 30 feet up the trail. The snowmobiles' runners had impaled his sled bag, where he was carrying Zorro. Several dogs received less serious injuries.
Mackey finished third in the 408-mile All Alaska Sweepstakes, and didn't discover the nine-year-old dog was injured until the race was over.
Mackey is the only musher to record back-to-back wins in the 1,100-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and the 1,150-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Zorro is his foundation stud dog. According to Lance Mackey's web site, the dog has three broken ribs, internal bleeding and spinal injuries and "is not able to stand or use his back legs."
You can read a full Associated Press account here.
Comments
I agree with this comment posted under the Anchorage Daily News website article about Zorro:
Zorro needed IMMEDIATE vet care
Mackey said, "'It was like a truck hitting a Pinto,' Mackey said." Zorro was impaled. He was hit by a heavy snowmachine and had the weight of it on him. Why didn't Mackey get Zorro immediate veterinary care instead of taking him back to his dog lot? If my dog were impaled by a heavy snowmachine, I'd immediately have him examined by a vet.
Snowmachiners have a history of hitting dog sled teams. When are sled dog race officials going to restrict where snowmachines can go?
Posted by: Doginator | March 31, 2008 12:31 PM
I have to agree with Doginator. Why are snow machines allowed anywhere near these race courses? I guess they would have a job of work keeping them out, but it looks to me as though most of this year's crop of injuries has been caused by bad drivers. It seems pretty obvious to me that if somebody wanted to sabotage or throw a race, all they'd have to do would be to target a particular team or teams.
From where I sit, this whole thing is starting to look worse and worse.
Posted by: Anne | March 31, 2008 5:00 PM