Frozen Taz

Lead Story :(

Linda Clark, the handler of a Colorado Iditarod 2015 team, lost one of her dogs today.





According to the article the dog was tired up to the back of the dog truck while a few of the dog team participated in the ceremonial start of the Iditarod yesterday. The dog was hit & killed by car in Anchorage.





According to the article, Stuart was named after the story book character Stuart Little due to his love for life and speed, has gotten loose and even though Linda was able to find him in time she was not able to get his attention before dashing into the highway and getting hit.





Linda is still going to Fairbanks to run the race because she feels it what Stuart would have wanted. Although it was far from his first race he had never gotten to run the Iditarod.








While I believe this is very sad and am overwhelmed with pride on how many spoke up to give condolences and prays to this new comer and her dog, I am a touch disappointed too.





Dogs & cats get hit often in Anchorage due to running loose. They never get so much as a paragraph in the back of obits? Yes some are stares, but others are the very loved pets of fellow town people and kids. Just because they aren't signed up for a spotlight event does not make them any less important or any less loved. Why is news worthy to mention Stuart's death?





Publicity! Plan and simply! I get this is a big race needed loads of training and skills on both parts, the dogs and the mushers, but is it really worth glorifying the nature of life?





It truly sadden me to think that all are media is now is another rating grabbing show!





Sad as it is, do we really see it as being worthy of the lead story? What about the legalization of weed here in Alaska? Which just went into affect on the 24th of February. Or all the shootings that have happened this year alone already? January had 31 days in it and Anchorage had 27 shootings. Even the fact that the public transportation to the valley was shut down without getting input from those that use it to get from the Valley to work on a daily basis?





I mean really? I get that the Iditarod is the happen event and the state want to keep it fresh and get as much media coverage as possible on it to help the state's revenue this year and in years to come, but really? Where is line of importance? I though exploiting the suicide of an ex-racer a month before the was low.





If the state really wants to generate media coverage to help with revenue for this year and years to come, how about cover the vas differences in racers? Colorado is a different state. One for which the training and understand of the race may be different then our own. There are a lot of different states represented in this race. coverage of the race and how it has evolved over the years, or the Fur Rondy and its evolution? I am sure that we could come up with a much better lead story that didn't involve making those that live here year round as if don't matter.