A bill in the state legislature would make the Seppala Siberian sled dog the Maine state dog.
A famous Seppala Siberian named Togo led a sled dog team to deliver medicine which saved the town of Nome, Alaska from a diphtheria outbreak in 1925.
The journey was the subject of the 1995 Disney movie “Balto,” named after the dog that finished the last leg of the journey.
Togo retired and spent the rest of his life at Poland Spring Resort in Maine, where he lived until the age of 16.
Republican State Representative David W. Boyer Jr. of Poland is sponsoring the bill to make the Seppala Siberian the official state dog. The bill has nine cosponsors as well.
A public hearing on the bill was held Monday by the Committee on State and Local Government in Augusta.
The Seppala Siberian dog is named after Leonhard Seppala, the musher who steered the dog sled team to Nome in 1925,
