A 4-year-old dog in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race collapsed and died Friday afternoon, according to race officials. It’s the first dog death of the 2025 race.
In a statement, race officials said the dog, named Ventana, was on rookie musher Daniel Klein’s team. Ventana collapsed roughly 8 miles outside of the Galena checkpoint, about a third of the way into the race.
According to the statement, attempts to revive Ventana were unsuccessful. Iditarod officials said a necropsy found Ventana was pregnant. They said that was “the only unexpected finding” and more testing will be completed.
Klein scratched from the Iditarod at 2:10 p.m. on Friday. Race rules say if a dog dies, a musher must voluntarily drop out of the race or will be withdrawn unless the dog died to an “unpreventable hazard,” like a run in with a moose.
According to the 2025 rule handbook, that rule is under consideration. But last month, race director Mark Nordman said the rule would still be enforced this year.
“That’s something we’re always looking at as far as a board of directors and rules committee,” Nordman said at a media briefing in February.
Last year, three dogs died on the trail. Necropsies were performed, but a cause of death wasn’t determined, according to race officials. They were the first deaths the Iditarod had reported since 2019.
This is Klein’s first Iditarod. He’s from Eagle, Wisconsin, and was running a team from 2023 champion Ryan Redington’s kennel. Redington was borrowing Ventana from veteran musher Wade Marrs, the kennel said in a social media post.
Multiple teams call it quits
By Sunday evening, a total of six mushers had scratched from the Iditarod, leaving 27 teams still in the race.
Veteran musher Gabe Dunham dropped out Sunday morning at Eagle Island “in the best interest of her team,” race officials said.
On Friday, rookie Mike Parker of Eagle River, and veteran Jeff Deeter of Fairbanks called it quits. Parker scratched in the “best interest of his team” in Ruby, according to race officials, while Deeter scratched for the “physical health of his team” in Galena.
Deeter placed 4th in last year’s Iditarod and won this year’s Yukon Quest Alaska 550.
In an interview in Galena, Deeter said many of the dogs took major falls mid-run over rough terrain, including stray pieces of driftwood, which led to various sprains, strains and other athletic injuries. In the most serious of those cases, one of his dogs partially tore his Achilles tendon.
“Once we heard about the trail change, starting from Fairbanks, I definitely anticipated that it was going to be tougher than what we should expect,” he said. “I anticipated some tough running out there. And, in fact, that’s what we got.”
He said, altogether, he’s proud of how his team ran. But he decided to withdraw out of concern for the longevity of their racing careers.
“With some of the athletic issues that I’ve been working with, and that they’re still suffering from, I decided it’s time to just get them off their feet and we’ll just rest up for the next big event that we’re in,” he said.
On Thursday, rookie Charmayne Morrison of Bozeman, Montana, scratched in Tanana on Thursday in the “best interest of her team,” race officials said.
Rookie Brenda Mackey of Fairbanks also dropped out Wednesday in Tanana.
In a statement, Iditarod officials said Mackey scratched “in the best interest of her team” and had 14 dogs “all in good health.” But the musher set the record straight in a lengthy Facebook post Friday morning saying she needed immediate veterinary care on the trail after leaving the Tanana checkpoint.
Mackey wrote she pushed an SOS button on a device mushers are required to carry, but it didn’t work, and she turned around and headed back to Tanana to get her dog to a vet.
Iditarod officials later issued another statement noting that Mackey had health concerns about one of her dogs, Jett, and said her SOS button did not activate correctly.
“We are happy to report that Jett is seemingly in good condition and appears to be healthy and in high spirits,” the statement said. “The ITC apologizes for the miscommunication and any angst we may have caused Brenda, her team and her followers.”
Mackey replied to the Iditarod’s statement saying Jett had elevated levels of an enzyme primarily found in a dog’s liver and will be taken to her vet in Fairbanks. “She otherwise seems in good health,” Mackey said.
KUAC reporter Shelby Herbert contributed reporting from Galena.