Dick Wilmarth Dick Wilmarth Dick Wilmarth (c.1942 – March 21, 2018) was a miner and trapper from Red Devil, Alaska who won the inaugural Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1973 with lead dog "Hotfoot". In a 2001 interview with the Anchorage Daily News, Wilmarth said he saw the 1973 Iditarod as not really a sled dog race but more of a time to enjoy the Alaska wilderness with friends. He assembled a 12-dog team just a few months before the race, obtaining dogs from Native villages on the Kuskokwim River. Thirty-five dog teams started the 1973 race and twenty-two finished. Competing
Sled Dogs (film) Sled Dogs (film) Sled Dogs is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Fern Levitt and released in 2016. The film explores the Iditarod, raising allegations of animal cruelty among breeders, trainers and kennelers of the event's sled dogs. However, at least one dog keeper tried to obtain a legal injunction against the film's premiere at the Whistler Film Festival, alleging that Levitt had inaccurately depicted the actual dog care ethics of sled dog handlers, misrepresenting footage of an unethical commercial pet breeder rather than speaking to or filming companies actually involved in the care or training of sled dogs. A