Perhaps many have seen a cartoon about a brave dog named Balto. The plot is based on a real story that happened in 1925. The dog, who was at the head of the team, managed not to get lost in a blizzard and took the medicine for diphtheria to its destination. His heroic deed is still being told to children at a school in Alaska.
In January 1925, a diphtheria epidemic broke out in the small mining town of Nome in Alaska. The disease threatened to destroy all the children in the city. The local hospital did not have enough medicine for everyone. The antitoxin was supposed to be delivered to the city by a plane, but because of the low temperature, it could not take off. Then it was decided to deliver the serum to the dog sleds.
The distance that 150 sled dogs had to run was 1085 km. Overcoming the path, called the Great Race of Mercy, took the dogs five and a half days.
The hero of this race was a coal-black Siberian husky named Balto. The first years of his life, the dog was only involved as a food carrier. He was considered too slow and unbearable for the heavier work. Later he was put on a dog sled, but he was still not considered a good leader. The dog showed the character of the leader precisely during the transportation of the medicine.
The team from Balto, led by Gunnar Kaasen, had to cover the last 84 km section of the route. As Gunnar recalled later, because of the intensified snowstorm, nothing was visible at arm's length. Thanks to Balto, the team managed to avoid death in the Topkok River. The dog stopped in time, sensing the danger. Strong gusts of wind once turned over the sledges. When the driver came to his senses, he was horrified to find that the serum had disappeared. Kassen miraculously managed to find a box with an android with his bare hands deep in the snow at -31 ° C. The team went on.
The next section of the path, from Safe to Nome, was to be run by the team of the driver Ed Ron. Balto arrived at Safety at 2 am. In order to save time, Gunnar Kassen decided not to wake Ed and drove on. The team arrived in the city at 5.30 am, the children were rescued. The epidemic was stopped in 5 days.
Half-frozen and almost exhausted dogs were recognized as heroes. This story immediately spread over the radio throughout the country. Everyone wrote about the feat of Balto, Kaasen and other dogs. The dog spent the last years of his life in the Cleveland Zoo. He died at the age of 14 in 1933. The taxidermist made an effigy of Balto, which was installed in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Balto erected monuments in several cities in America.
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