内容摘要：Across the U.S., more than 7,000 pharmacies have closed since 2019, according to data from University of Pittsburgh researcher Lucas Berenbrok, who considers that estimate conservative. Of those pharmacies, 54% were independent drugstores, an AP analysis of Berenbrok’s data found.

Across the U.S., more than 7,000 pharmacies have closed since 2019, according to data from University of Pittsburgh researcher Lucas Berenbrok, who considers that estimate conservative. Of those pharmacies, 54% were independent drugstores, an AP analysis of Berenbrok’s data found.

Albert Whitehead spends time with Star, his pet reindeer, outside his pen in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, on March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)Albert Whitehead spends time with Star, his pet reindeer, outside his pen in downtown Anchorage, Alaska, on March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Whitehead was watching the video feed when a man wearing a scarf over his face sprayed something from two different cans into Star’s pen and twice hit the reindeer in the face with an unknown substance.Whitehead rushed outside to confront the man.“I yelled at him to stop, ‘What the hell are you doing? What are you spraying on the animal? Don’t do that, quit that!’” Whitehead said.

The man replied: “I’m trying to help Star.”“I have no idea what he meant by that,” said Whitehead, who suspects — based on the smells — that the sprays could have been a disinfectant and deodorizer.

Whitehead and police believe it was the same man from the prior night. It’s not known if the January tampering involved the same person.

“I don’t think the individual wanted to harm Star, but by his actions, he did,” Whitehead said.his caretaker said Wednesday.

“I don’t have an answer as to why he had to be put down other than it relates back to what happened,” said Albert Whitehead, who cared not only for the 8-year-old reindeer named Star but also the decades-long tradition of having a reindeer in downtown Anchorage.Star lived in a fenced-in pen attached to Whitehead’s house on a busy street at the edge of downtown. But starting in early January, someone began tampering with the friendly reindeer and his pen.

A person got inside the pen in January, and Star began losing weight. In February, someone cut the locks off the pen’s gates and Star wandered downtown streets. The following night, someone sprayed some type of substance into Star’s pen.Earlier, Whitehead shied away from thinking that person might have poisoned Star, but now he doesn’t know.