Values the lives of humans over animals

To the editor:

I dreamed I went to Heaven. Instead, it was Alaska, with its indescribable beauty, unimaginable vastness, incomprehensible geographic variety and get-it-done practicality.

Then I woke up and found I was in the nightmare of save-everything-except-humans Southern California: laws are enforced only against those without the money or fame to escape them L.A.

But I looked out the windows and there were the Chugach Mountains. I gazed around and saw my familiar town of Palmer, the place “Insight Guides” travel books described as “the place you think of when you think of Alaska.”

How could this be, when policy was made by voices from overseas calling upon officials here to save a dog that tried to kill a child? When officials are afraid of alienating someone’s favor because he is an Iditarod veteran? When a professional dog handler allows/solicits other people to keep their dog(s) on his lot, but doesn’t sufficiently secure his sled dogs or have them supervised when he is off the premises?

The photos of hunting trophies, fish catches, etc. that delight me in the pages of our local papers would cause a “not in So-Cal,” response. David Green’s wonderful store would have blood and bricks thrown at the windows and on the patrons.

This, however, is Alaska. Common sense, practicality, B.S. be gone. I avidly watch re-broadcasts of the Iditarod and admire those who attempt it, including their dogs.

But when push comes to shove, I value the lives of humans over animals, and I’ve known some loveable animals and some horrid people.

Hey, Oregon, send us up some of those famous bumper stickers! The ones that say “Don’t Californicate…”

Carol Neuerman

Palmer