One third of Yukon Quest sled dogs injured in past races, study finds

A new study of illness and injury among dogs in the Yukon Quest international sled dog race lays bare how many of the animals experienced "abnormal" health conditions while participating in the long-distance race. 

The research focuses on the races held in 2018, 2019 and 2020, when the Quest was still a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometre) race between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, Alaska. The longer race has since been replaced by shorter events on either side of the border.  

According to the study, a third of the sled dogs participating in those years were injured, while hundreds had to be pulled from the event because of injuries or sickness.

The research paper is soon to be published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science, and was compiled with the intention of helping vets who work in the race. 

Researchers from University of Alaska, Colorado State University and Oklahoma State University — including the head vet for the Yukon Quest Alaska — looked at hand-written records for 711 dogs from teams that completed the Yukon Quest those years.

They found 234 of those dogs were injured, and of them, 206 were dropped from the race.

Another 22 dogs were removed from the race because they were sick with gastrointestinal illness, and seven were removed from the race with cardiorespiratory disease. 

Overall, just over half the dogs — 365 — had "abnormal" findings in their vet record during the race. That includes anything noted by veterinarians from harness rub, to torn toenails, to more significant injuries. 

The data excludes dogs in teams that didn't finish the event.

It's not clear whether the research findings, yet to be released in full, also examine the deaths of dogs in the race. Quest officials reported deaths in 2018 and 2019, with both those dogs having choked or suffocated.

Nina Hansen, one of the study's authors and the lead veterinarian for the Yukon Quest Alaska, explained that the vast majority of the injuries were orthopedic, relating to bones, tendons, ligaments and muscles, mostly in the dogs' paws and front legs. 

"They're athletes, they're running. They're like human runners. They get injuries," Hansen said.

"The carpus, that's their wrist, was the most common [injury]. Most of those [dogs] went on to finish the race. Then shoulder injuries followed. And if a dog gets a shoulder injury during the race, they're not probably going to finish. That's one of the things this paper found." 

Hansen said the data would help vets to predict and treat injuries in future races. 

"I still go out on the trail every year and I examine dogs and there's a lot of anecdotal evidence from vets like, if you see a wrist injury they're probably going to go on to finish," she said.

"I wanted to actually put numbers to some of these things which would help vets on the trail make decisions."

Data won't help 'protect dogs from these astronomical injuries,' activist says

Camille Labchuk, a Toronto-based lawyer whose organization, Animal Justice, has been advocating for stronger laws to protect sled dogs, said the new research lays out "really, really serious concerns."

She said she was "stunned" by the number of injuries.

"For years we've heard representatives from Yukon Quest International race claim very, very low injury rate, [that] dogs are very safe, they're treated very well. I think the study completely belies those claims," she said.

"All of these diseases are incredibly troubling. Orthopedic injuries can be life-altering for dogs. We don't know what the outcome was for these dogs if some of them recovered or did not recover from these injuries. Gastrointestinal illness is obviously extremely concerning ... and cardiorespiratory disease as well. That seems extremely serious to me," she said. 

"I'd be very curious to know what the outcome was for these dogs and how many of them actually made it through."

Labchuk hoped it would be a wake-up call for event organisers. 

"I don't think that the data is going to help us protect dogs from these astronomical injuries. The main issue with dog sledding is that the point of a race is to win the race. So there's every incentive for dogs to work very, very hard, harder than they really can," she said. 

"I don't know what welfare improvements the race can make."

Yukon Quest organiser welcomes data

There have been some changes made with dog welfare in mind, since the Yukon Quest split into two shorter races on either side of the Yukon/Alaska border in 2021. 

On the Canadian side, Yukon Quest executive director Benjamin Smith said organisers had recruited more vets and added a second mandatory vet check along the race route in Pelly Crossing, Yukon, for dogs entered in the 450-mile (724 kilometre) event.

That is in addition to a pre-race inspection and  a first vet check, a short distance in to the race.  

If vets think a dog is unfit to continue, Smith said they have the absolute authority to withdraw them.

"These are trained, licensed veterinarians. They are brought [to the Yukon] because they know their craft....We're not bringing in vets who are completely unfamiliar with dogs and dog sledding and and have no knowledge of it."

Smith said the study is amazing and he is "very, very supportive of, and very appreciative of it."

He suggested that the nature of the race — even its shorter versions — involves a lot of running, and that means injuries will happen.

"There will always be sprains and strains. There will always be sore joints and sore muscles," he said.

At the same time, Smith hopes the new study would help bring the Yukon Quest closer to its goal of "zero incidents, zero injuries."

"It's a large goal to have but I think it's realistic to think that we can really examine the data and approach it with measurables to fine-tune our systems. Studies like this...have a direct impact on our race," he said.
 
"It does give a great overview of what types of injuries can occur and what areas that we can focus." 

Smith noted the study didn't drill down into specific variables, like the dogs' ages, the weather conditions, or the trail conditions. 

He said it provided a great baseline to build off in future.

"We could focus on specific aspects of it, like the orthopedic injuries. And are there spots on our trail that we do see more injuries? Are there trail conditions, weather conditions where we do see that more prevalently happen?"

Smith said race organisers were hoping to return to the 1,000-mile (1,600 kilometre) format "in the near future."