Fate unclear for dog of Iditarod racer that bit child

BIG LAKE — A sled dog that attacked and hospitalized a young girl in Big Lake Friday is in quarantine, awaiting a determination from the Mat-Su Borough’s Animal Care and Regulation division.

“I can’t say much because it’s an ongoing case,” said division director Carol Vardeman.

In general, though, she said the dog has been quarantined for 10 days to make sure it isn’t rabid.

“That’s doubtful. All of those rabies cases are way up above Fairbanks,” she said.

After that, the department decides what type of classification to put on the dog, one through five.

Five is most serious. According to borough code, level one could be for something as low-level as aggressive posturing and barking. The injuries to the girl seem to fit the highest classification. Specifically, it seems to fit the criterion that “an animal, regardless of whether it is restrained, causes serious physical injury or the death of any human.”

If her officer determines class 5 is warranted, Vardeman said either the owner can surrender the dog or fight the case before the borough’s Animal Care and Regulation board. If, or when, the borough prevails, the dog will be put down.

In this case, the owner is Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race musher Jake Berkowitz, who finished eighth this year, his best so far. It was his fourth attempt at the race and he won the coveted Alaska Airlines Leonard Seppala Humanitarian Award in recognition for the care he showed his dogs during the race.

“One of our dogs broke a brand new hook and bit the girl, who was a few feet away from the dog. We are devastated by this whole event. All that matters now is (the girl’s) recovery,” Berkowitz says in a statement sent to an online newspaper.

He said that he didn’t know there would be young children at his kennel that day and that neither he nor his wife was home at the time.

“Her mother had one of her own dogs on a leash, leading it out of the dog yard, with another younger child in her backpack. Sled dogs always get excited when strangers come through the yard, especially so if they have a dog with them,” Berkowitz’s statement says.

Alaska State Troopers also responded to the scene, AST spokeswoman Megan Peters said in an email Friday.

“We have responded as EMS hadn’t gotten to the scene when we were notified,” she wrote, adding that she had no further details then.

A fuller account was released Saturday evening.

Troopers report that the 2-year-old girl and her family were on the property feeding and tending to eight dogs they kennel there.

“The girl’s mother was able to get the canine off of her daughter, at which time the canine attacked the child again. When EMS arrived on scene the child was unresponsive,” according to the trooper press release.

Media reports quoting the girl’s father indicate the mother actually fought the dog off twice and that the girl had been bit on the neck. The father also says that troopers were incorrect — his wife and kids weren’t feeding the dogs, just dropping off food and money.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com