Tragically on Sunday, a little girl was mauled to death by a pair of Alaskan malmutes. I love these dogs. They're gorgeous creatures that are generally really friendly. The little girl knew these dogs—she wasn't attacked because she was a strange kid who was bothering them. She had played with the dogs numerous times and this freak accident happened.
I read this story the other day. It talked about the little girl, the dogs, the neighbour and then underneath the story was a big story explaining why a breeder was worried this would give a bad reputation to the breed. I really hope these beautiful dogs don't get a bad reputation because of this but as a dog owner and someone who has experienced losing someone to a tragedy, I would not want to see that next to this tragic story. I'm sure people look differently at malamutes because of this, don't you? I do.
It's tragic that malamutes MAYBE won't be adopted as often or bought as often, but that hasn't even happened and isn't even guaranteed to happen. Someone lost a child, maybe a sister, a friend, a grandchild. That is the reality of this. I'm a dog lover—obviously—and i'm also a journalism student. We talk a lot about what's ethical, what's wrong, what's right; and I think this is one of those things that could be considered unethical to this family dealing with this loss. Is it bad that the breeder may have said that? No of course not. What breeder of Alaskan malamutes wouldn't worry about the dogs' reputation after something like this? My question is, is that a bad choice in journalism—to put an article of the bad reputation malamutes MIGHT get right under the story about a little girl that was just killed by two of them.
It is a beautiful breed; and I truly am sad that these beautiful dogs will be looked at differently from now on. These are all my own opinions.
I hope that little girl rests in peace and that her family and friends eventually find peace.
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