Sarah Palin Supported Aerial Hunting

The Washington Independent:

The wolf is an intelligent, handsome creature and, for many visitors to Alaska, an integral part of the state's wild appeal. Wolves live in complex social structures, mate for life and don't attack humans -- it's easy to see in them the family resemblance to mankind's best friend.

That's what makes it so painful to look at the video of an aerial wolfhunt in Alaska that has been circulating since Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was nominated as Sen. John McCain's running mate on the Republican ticket.

In a program begun by ex-Gov. Frank Murkowski, and intensified by Palin, Alaska has sponsored the aerial hunting of more than 800 wolves since 2002 -- out of a state population of perhaps 9,000. Pilots chase the wolves through the deep snow, sometimes for miles, until the exhausted animals have slowed enough to be blown away with shotguns. Then the plane lands and finishes the job, unless the wounded wolf has managed to crawl into the deep woods to bleed to death in solitude.

Palin, who won office with the support of powerful hunting groups, has intensified the "cull." She pushed to offer a bounty to hunters who brought in a left wolf paw (lopped off with a chain saw) and extended the kill order to grizzly and black bears -- including sows and their cubs. Before a state court ruled the practice illegal, she offered a bounty of $150 for every slain wolf.

Hunting groups support the program, arguing that it increases the availability of game for poor Alaskans, and the sporting chances of hunters like Sarah and Todd Palin themselves, who have their sights set on moose. But wildlife viewing brings far more tourist dollars to the state, where only 11 percent of the population hunts.

Read the whole story: The Washington Independent

Comments

[marymansour]

01:30 PM on 09/13/2008

Why has this been relegated to the Green area? This should be on the front page. When I closed out yesterday afternoon, there were already 12 pages and filling of posts in the Politics area protesting this outrageous destruction of wolves from the air. Now I see it's been sent to the green section. These atrocities against animals are a large component of Sarah Palin's character. Americans need to know these things. PUT IT ON THE FRONT PAGE, please!

[gakabani]

12:12 PM on 09/14/2008

Agree, what it tells is a flawed character. Palin is dangerous and irrational and bases her decisions not on diplomacy but on prepotence. What she can do to a single person she can do it a million. God saves us all.

[MACS]

12:50 AM on 09/13/2008

.
God put moose and elk on this earth to feed the wolves.
.

[ErnestineBass]

12:29 AM on 09/13/2008

Only a C U N T like Reichweiniemaroon would hunt from the safety of a plane.

[RightWingMarine]

03:16 PM on 09/12/2008

If you don't like the idea of hunting from the air, don't do it. If you are unable to convince someone to come to your side on an issue and instead have to resort to using the legislature to pass a law and force others to your point of view, that reduces freedom for everyone.

In anticipation from the responses this may get, hunting from the air harms no people. Actions that directly harm others obviously should be prohibited. The right to swing your fist ends where another person's nose begins.

[mouselion]

05:33 PM on 09/12/2008

It harms the Alaskan wilderness ecosystems. Take away the top of the food-chain, it unravels the health of all other animals and vegetation.

[Egalitare]

05:46 PM on 09/12/2008

Unfortunately, it only takes a couple dozen "air hunters" to do severe damage to the wolf population.

Hunting from the air harms no people.

No, not DIRECTLY. Losses of livestock and wild grazers are always overblown by ranchers and hunters. A few hundred wolves CANNOT decimate the caribou herd, but the complete absence of wolves will have a catastrophic effect on the herd. But if you don't believe in real science, that's irrelevant.

[mouselion]

12:27 PM on 09/12/2008

From the Washington Independent article:

' When moose and caribou get too numerous and overbrowse, the plants don’t grow as well and the resulting food shortage can weaken the animals, leading to disease outbreaks. In the 1970s and ’80s, the slaughter of wolves in the Tanana Flats area, south of Fairbanks, led the moose population to explode from about 2,800 to the current level of 17,000. The moose in that area are sick, Van Ballenberghe said. “We’re waiting for a bad winter and that population will crash.” '
_________

When you eradicate the natural predators of an ecosystem, you degrades the health of that system. Alaska has some of the only vast expanses of unspoiled wilderness left in the U.S. We need to learn from our past mistakes: this is our last chance to do so.

[sain71]

12:16 PM on 09/12/2008

What hypocrisy! The double standard is overwhelming. How can someone who is so vehemently Pro-Life, be for killing in such an inhumane way?! Sarah Palin disgusts me. I would NEVER vote for her. As a woman, I can tell you first hand, that she DOES NOT represent the women in this country and if the Republicans are so naive as to think that she would win over Hillary supporters, that just shows either how dumb they are, or that they really think women are that stupid, which is most insulting. Just the fact that Karl Rove appointed her to McCain's ticket is sexist.

Go WOLVES!!
Go OBAMA!!!

[Egalitare]

08:08 PM on 09/12/2008

Because those who embrace "the Culture of Life" only care about HUMAN life (between conception and birth).

But they aren't stupid. They are counting on enough undecided voters being dazzled by her newness and flashing packaging.

[rupert12]

11:50 AM on 09/12/2008

Shooting animals from helicopters is for cowards. If you want to hunt wolves then grow a pair and go out in the woods and do it for real.

[Trittydi]

11:57 AM on 09/12/2008

If you want a coward - call your local repuke-lic. Thank you - I now get to add a new word.

Repuglics -- the party of rapacious, doughy white, cowardly, angry, bigots, racists, perverts, pedophiles, murderers, war criminals, homophobes, misogynists, stupid women and liars.
*

[jkpcguru]

11:38 AM on 09/12/2008

If I were a wolf, I'd be after her too. I just saw a mini-documentary on Alaskan Aerial Wolf Hunting and I have to say I'm disgusted.

How can circumventing a federal law be OK for a candidate running for the 2nd highest federal job?

What federal law will she circumvent next?

The inside story of Aerial Wolf Hunting:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/31/22337/7183

[Trittydi]

11:34 AM on 09/12/2008

Is there a group that supports hunting pit-bulls wearing lipstick - from airplanes? Because if there is - that might be why Sarah thinks it's okay to go after wolves this way.
*

[marymansour]

01:37 PM on 09/13/2008

This may be graphic but I would like to see Palin at the end of a chain held by Michael Vick about to face a real pitbull. That said, I abhor dogfighters.

[Trilby]

11:10 AM on 09/12/2008

I support Saral Palin, alone on the ground, in wolf country without a rifle, knife, or any man-made weapon.

Come to think of it, she still might scare the wolves away!

[yesyesyes]

05:25 AM on 09/12/2008

The people in airplanes need to eat too! Predator species have always made all of their prey extinct, "Seems reasonable to me, doh de doh be doh"....Bless the Beasts and the Children.

[csavage]

10:54 AM on 09/12/2008

A stupid predator species that makes their prey extinct follows their prey into extinction shortly thereafter....
Predators also eat they prey..
Do not confuse people who shoot wolves from the air with real hunters, just like you shouldn't confuse people who shoot captive animals in enclosed pens with hunters, either....

Look at Ducks Unlimited.....It's a nonprofit composed of hunters who know the only way they'll be able to continue to hunt is to preserve the duck and goose populations.

Killing a wolf doesn't fix the number 1 reason for loss of game animals-that reason is loss of habitat to housing development.
And, if these hunters want to kill elk, all they need to do is travel to Colorado. Because of the loss of the elk's natural predator, the wolf, the population is suffering from overpopulation

[darthdarcy]

11:07 PM on 09/11/2008

Aerial hunting is so wrong, just wrong, unless going after a dangerous predator that has already killed humans..!

[mouselion]

08:10 PM on 09/11/2008

"...Steve Stringham, a wildlife biologist and author of six books about bears, says Alaska has never established what numbers of moose and caribou can be sustained by the environment. If they shoot too many wolves and bears, he noted, “the potential for overgrazing may be high.”

Historically wolves are wrongly demonized and thus sought out for killing. In fact, they are essential to the overall health of Alaskan wildlife. They cull the weak and infirm, and help to keep the ungulate populations in proper balance with their environment.

[doctorwang]

04:58 PM on 09/11/2008

If caribou numbers are in such decline perhaps Palin should rethink her stance on developing the oil fields in ANWR.