Anchorage, Alaska • The world’s foremost sled dog race kicks off its 47th running this weekend as participants strive to push past a punishing two years for the sport’s image.
Some of the drama has been resolved for Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. In December, race organizers cleared four-time winner Dallas Seavey of any wrongdoing in a 2017 dog-doping scandal. New members also have been appointed to the Iditarod's governing board following musher discontent over perceived conflicts.
But animal activists are turning up the heat over multiple dog deaths in the history of the 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) race, which spans mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and dangerous sea ice along the Bering Sea coast, with village checkpoints staged across the trail.