Yukon Quest bars past champ Hugh Neff, cites 'lack of dog care'

Longtime Yukon Quest musher Hugh Neff won't be allowed to run in next year's race — after it was discovered that his dead dog was infested with parasitic worms and its muscles were wasting away, among other health conditions.

Yukon Quest officials say the decision to bar Neff, who has competed in the sled dog race 17 times and won it twice, is related to the death of one of his dogs during the 2018 race in February.

"When the necropsy report came back, we felt that there were enough issues in there that we needed to take action," said Kathleen McGill, chair of the race's rules committee.

The Quest is one of North America's most well-known sled dog races. The annual 1,600-kilometre race has taken place every year since 1984 over rough, gruelling terrain in often bitterly cold temperatures.

Neff's dead dog, named Boppy, died of aspiration pneumonia, before reaching the halfway point at Dawson City. A final necropsy report by the race's head veterinarian says the dog had inhaled vomited stomach contents.

A news release from the race on Tuesday listed a number of other health issues Boppy had, that were discovered during the necropsy. They included stomach ulcers, intestinal inflammation, whipworm infestation, skeletal muscle necrosis, severe weight loss and muscle wasting.

McGill said some of said some of those problems point to a "lack of dog care" on Neff's part.

She said Boppy's whipworms suggested Neff had not controlled for an infestation, at his kennel. McGill also said Boppy's wasted condition was a serious concern.

"These were things that were on the interior of the dog, if you will, and pointed to what we feel was lack of dog care, both in the kennel and along the trail," she said.

"This dog had no body fat left on the inside, and that just didn't happen overnight. It just didn't happen at the race. And that was when we felt we needed to take strong action." 

'We need to speak for the dogs'

Neff, who is based in Tok, Alaska, won't be allowed to run the 1,600-kilometre race until 2021 at the earliest, since race officials have ruled that he must run the qualifying YQ300 (482-kilometre) race before again entering the longer race.

The earliest he could enter the YQ300 is 2020.

McGill said the decision to censure a musher in this way is a first for the Quest. She said the race has strengthened some of its rules in recent years, and will "probably make them even stronger, this year."

"We feel in this day and age of social media, we owe it to our fans, our sponsors, our volunteers, the other mushers, the mushing community, that if we feel there's something that needs attention, we need to respond to it — we need to speak for the dogs," she said.

"We want to be more proactive, if you will, than reactive."

Neff now has 30 days to request a hearing with race officials, but McGill says it is not an appeal process.

"It's more to go through what our thinking is. So I doubt that we'll change our decision," McGill said.

One of Neff's dogs also died in the 2011 race. In 2001, he was disqualified due to the condition of his team at the checkpoint in Eagle, Alaska.