91 wolves shot in Alaska

[donsu]

this is from a email I got from care2 and the petition site in conjunction with Defenders of Wildlife

"91 wolves have been shot dead under Alaska's new aerial gunning program in the last month. Your help is urgently needed: the plan is to kill 80% of the wolves in an 8,000 square mile area of Alaska.

-snip-

Aerial hunters gun the wolves down from the air, or chase them to exhaustion in the deep snow, then land and shoot them point-blank. Under the pretense of boosting moose populations for hunters, aerial hunters can even kill pregnant females and wolf pups. Numerous scientific studies show that wolves are actually beneficial to the overall health of natural ecosystems, and keep Alaska's moose and caribou populations healthy and strong.

Wolves, much like our family dogs, are pack animals with close bonds and family ties. But right now, they really need YOUR help.

Donate to our partner, Defenders of Wildlife, today: http://www.care2.com/go/z/12158

Your donation will help:
# Shine the media spotlight on the barbaric practice of aerial gunning to provoke national outrage to stop it.
# Persuade tourism companies in Alaska to call for a ban on aerial gunning.
# Mobilize Alaska's citizens to demand legislative action to halt the killing.
# Demand that Interior Secretary Gale Norton stop the killing as a violation of the Federal Airborne Hunting Act.

This is a cause worth fighting for. Plans call for up to 140 wolves to be killed in two areas by April 30th. We must act fast.
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[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. Defenders of Wildlife is a great organization for wolf advocacy.

They also pay reparations to ranchers whose livestock suffers wolf kills.

[northofdenali]

2. Now up to 114 as of today's newspaper.

Just because the assholes in McGrath can't shoot a moose from their back door - too fucking lazy to actually HUNT their moose.

Jerks. The black bears are next - I am not kidding, they're in the sights of our so-called Game Board - all of which are hunters and guides.

Believe it or not, this is STILL under Federal control because we can't come up with a "proper" subsistence hunting rule. Been that way for 5 years. Not many folks in the Lower 48 are aware of this. The Feds also control the fishing subsistence.

I am not anti-hunting, I love to have moose in my freezer each fall. But, damn it, killing the wolves will NOT bring back the moose population. It's the massive number of hunting licenses issued each year, a majority to "Outside" hunters, that's causing the problem.

Our previous governor, a Democrat (and hopefully our next US Senator) had a subsistence plan that made sense, but could not get it pushed through the super-majority REPUKE state congress. He also had a "balanced" Game Board and the moose population in the affected area grew by 20%. But the area residents can't wait for Mom Nature.....

Come the Rapture, I'll have my State back! :P

[rumguy]

7. why do the repukes so dominate Alaska?

I've never been but I imagine it to be a place of mavericks, etc., is voter turn out usually poor?

[GinaMaria]

8. I've heard not so repuke

There are quite a few conservationists in Alaska and the Democrats have a good chance at winning some elections there.

[northofdenali]

9. Oil money. Oil, oil, oil!!

They dominate politically because they have the money. There are lots of progressives, Dems and libertarians who just don't bother any more. Sadly. :(

[Leilani]

3. Thanks for posting this

I received this email last week.

There is an action center at Defenders of Wildlife, you can sign a petition, to stop the gutting of Endangered Species Act.

What they are doing to the wolves is criminal; please help!!!

When Marc Racciot was Gov of Montana, they had big buffalo shoots right outside Yellowstone, when the animals wandered out of the park.
It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen.

[LWolf]

4. I am appalled.

Speechless.

[misanthrope]

5. Ah, yes...

...just one more reason why I fully support the rapid use of as many fossil fuels as possible by homo sapiens. Why? Because we aren't going to change behavior until we wipe ourselves out, so the sooner the better. The quicker we disappear, the greater chance that more of the biodiversity will be left to rebound. The longer we draw our demise out, the worse the entire ecosystem will be for it.

Hunters are hilarious, especially when they chime in with their refutations about how they are taking the place of the large predators we removed from the land. Current methods of hunting for our culture work in direct opposition to natural selection. Why? Because natural selection chips away at a population group "from the outside in," taking the young, old and infirmed first. The process selects for fitness and ensures genetic strength. Human hunters select "against fitness" by bagging the most genetically robust first. It weakens the general genotype. Its just more horse hockey from those who empower their lives by wielding power of life and death over the unaware.

You want to make hunting truly "about skill"? Then no hunter should be allowed to hunt with any weapon he can't make by his own hand. Any jackass can buy a gun, sit over bait, and pull a trigger.

[Leilani]

6. I don't think many Americans are aware

of the destruction being done to wildlife by this group in Washington & their allies in the states.

If more people were aware, perhaps we could change things.

[CerealMurderer]

10. What is the human impact if the wolf hunt is not stopped?

What kind of damage to the people on Alaska will occur if the shooting of wolves is allowed to continue? What is the impact if the hunt is stopped?