A musher and her sled dog team were attacked by a large bull moose last week during a 52-mile run in Alaska. According to our friends at Outdoor Life, Bridgett Watkins and her friend and handler, Jen Nelson, were training for the Iditarod with two sled dog teams — a team of 10 attached to Watkin’s sled, and a team of six attached to Nelson’s snowmobile. Bridgett and her husband Scott operate Kennel on a Hill in Two Rivers, Alaska.

Watkins and her team were on the Salcha River Trail System when she saw the moose about a quarter of a mile away. The moose would appear and then disappear again multiple times along the trail. Watkins gave the moose plenty of space each time. As she rounded a corner, the moose appeared a fourth time about 150 yards away. He turned the corner and walked out of sight once again, only to reappear and charge full speed at the team.

Watkins emptied her .380 semi-auto into the moose, but he was undeterred. The moose began to trample the dogs and then turned to Watkins and Nelson, stopping just 2 feet in front of the snowmobile they were hiding behind. Watkins was able to cut the six-dog team free and they ran off, but the dogs still attached to the sled were trampled repeatedly for an hour before a friend was able to reach them, shooting the moose with a rifle.

“He would not leave us alone and he even stood over top of the team refusing to retreat. Our friend that lives out on the river was able to finally get to us and kill the animal that dropped just beside the team,” Watkins said in her Facebook post. She added to her Facebook post: “musher advice; carry a bigger gun.”  

Watkins and Nelson transported the dogs to the North Pole Vet where a trauma team of vets was waiting for them. Four of the dogs sustained major injuries but are now on the mend.

You can follow the Kennel on a Hill team’s journey to recovery as well as their Iditarod training here.