Sarah Palin has struck back at Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which is running a video accusing the Alaska governor of planning to expand the aerial hunting of wolves in her state.
The graphic video, part of the group’s “Eye on Palin” campaign, is narrated by Hollywood star Ashley Judd and has generated a lot of media attention this week.
Here is the full text of Palin’s brief statement, which was released late on Tuesday:
“It is reprehensible and hypocritical that the Defenders of Wildlife would use Alaska and my administration as a fundraising tool to deceive Americans into parting with their hard-earned money.”
“The ad campaign by this extreme fringe group, as Alaskans have witnessed over the last several years, distorts the facts about Alaska’s wildlife management programs. Alaskans depend on wildlife for food and cultural practices which can’t be sustained when predators are allowed to decimate moose and caribou populations. Our predator control programs are scientific and successful at protecting vulnerable wildlife. These audacious fundraising attempts misrepresent what goes on in Alaska, and I encourage people to learn the facts about Alaska’s positive record of managing wildlife for abundance.”
“Shame on the Defenders of Wildlife for twisting the truth in an effort to raise funds from innocent and hard-pressed Americans struggling with these rough economic times.”
What is perhaps most revealing about the statement is that Palin, who shot to national prominence last year as the Republican Party’s vice presidential candidate, did not address one of the group’s key allegations: that she plans to introduce legislation shortly that would expand the aerial predator hunting program.
Whether the program is expanded or not, what do you think? is this kind of predator control cruel and inhumane? Or are most if not all efforts at the control of wild predators cruel? Can it ever be justified on scientific grounds? Or to, say, protect humans from man-eaters such as crocodiles? And is Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund using Palin to raise cash during a recession? What do you think?
(Photo Credit: REUTERS/Hans Deryk, USA, Nov 13, 2008)
Trackback
77 comments so far
Previous | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Next
Let me get this straight. Palin is proposing a bill to shoot more wolves, so humans can kill the caribou and moose instead. If left alone, nature provides for a natural attentuation process that culls both the herds and the predators; and if, as Palin suggests, the population of Alaska depends on killing caribou and moose for food, maybe the real issue that needs to be addressed is human population control.
- Posted by Terri Oguzps.
- Posted by Conniehow much longer does she have in office?? can’t be out soon enough…
The Safari Club gave Palin a whopping $600,000 during her campaign…I do not believe she is doing it for the economy…She’s a hunter and really enjoys it..I read somewhere that she paid $15,000 for the leg of a wolf..what does that tell you….aerial hunting is down right cruel…let nature take care of itself and leave the humans out of it…it was doing fine until we started screwing with it…man always manages to go in and screw things up…
- Posted by ConnieI say keep going defenders of wild life you are doing the right think kick palin’s butt
- Posted by Pengiathanwolves eat the weak and the sick humans rake the best. if anything humans are the ones killing all the elk moose and deer TAKE RESPONSIBILITY!!!!
introducing deer is a great way!
LOL in some places there are too many and they starve Alaska is evenly ballanced lets keep it that way!
Where is this baby the Palin family said Bristol delivered in December? What evidence exists for it besides Palin’s statements?
- Posted by frank burnsIt’s all about $$$$ and many environmental groups will use anything to raise money. They are big business, sophisticated, and like a religion and should be feared.
- Posted by buffalojumpObviously, a lot of people have bought into the eco-propaganda that wolves are warm and fuzzy creatures that will never ever eat or maim people. They’re just clueless as to what it takes to properly manage wolves. Anyone not believing this should read Will Graves book, “Wolves in Russia: Anxiety Through the Ages” and watch Bruce Hemming’s documentary, “Undue Burden: the real cost of living with wolves”. Graves book is full of statistics, but the accounts of how little kids and adults have been killed by wolves are mind boggling. Had wolves been properly managed to keep their population in line with their natural prey, they wouldn’t have been feeding on people and animals people owned. Often, rural area Russian peasants had guns, but no ammunition, or they had no guns at all. Wolves eat or ’spree kill’ their way through their natural prey base. Also, since we don’t hunt them, they lose their fear of people.
See http://www.prosts.com/Documentary-Undue- Burden.htm
and http://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Russia-Anxi ety-Through-
A list of people killed by Wolves in North America are listed in Undue Burden.
- Posted by BruceThe sooner they get rid of that evil woman the better.
- Posted by ChrisHand it to the spoiled celebrities who live in sprawling metropolitan areas stick their noses into the policies of people who live in regions that rely on traditional methods of providing food for their families. Since the beginning of time man has hunted for food, but in the last half century it has somehow become more “humane” to mass produce everything that these people actually have to go out and work to obtain.
Overpopulation of wolves = smaller resources for indigenous population, as well as disease and starvation for the wolves. And for those who hate sports hunters, they actually know more about the value of an animal consumed for food than any hippocrite who hunts for their food at the local supermarket, despite being painted as ignorant red necks with itchy trigger fingers by the misguided carebears in hollywood.
Maybe we should send some of these people up to Alaska to live with the locals for a while and see how well they do surviving off of their idealist philosophies.
Hollywood should leave Alaska’s game and fish policies to the local professionals and focus more on acting and making movies so we can see something that is worth the rediculous prices we pay for admission and popcorn.
- Posted by Brandon“protect humans from man-eaters such as crocodiles?”
unfair comparison - there has NEVER been a documented case of wolves attacking humans in Alaska.
Predator control is junk science. Visit:
- Posted by J. Klinehttp://www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfo Page
for real information
Slightly OT but does anyone know when the next election is in Alaska? The sooner they get rid of Palin the better off everyone will be. I find it hard to believe that there are still people who think she’s a “breath of fresh air” when she’s the exact opposite.
- Posted by steveThe hunting of wolves by air has been going on since the late 1940’s. Over the decades, it’s been controversial. Sarah Palin is just the latest person to become involved in this.
As one poster pointed out, the majority of Alaskans DO get their food from supermarkets. However, some 20% of the population, about 120,000 people, hunt and/or fish as a primary means of feeding themselves. These people live in the more remote parts of the state, as have their ancestors before them.
One wolf, on average, will consume 12-14 caribou per year. Alaska is very cold and wolves are big, warm-blooded animals that live outside, without the benefit of fire. It takes a lot of calories to survive as a wolf in Alaska.
When viewed in this light, the issue with the wolves turns into a conflict between predators. It doesn’t mean that we automatically replace them, however. Wolves hunt the young, sick, and slow animals. HUMANS hunt the largest and healthiest animals - and remember, no caribou outruns a rifle. From the point of view of the ecosystem, we are apex or super-predators. We affect the population dynamics in a different way: Evolution no longer favors the largest and fastest, it favors the smallest, slowest and more sickly looking. With this in mind, only the best scientific and observational methods should be used to make sure the ungulate populations of Alaska do not collapse from two groups of predators burning the opposite ends of their population candle.
- Posted by RobertThis whole thing should, better not be just a smear campain against Ms Palin. She was brave enough to join the GOP in a race for the top that was unwinable(real word or not)
- Posted by kenzoShe provided the party with a freshness and determination that was lacking. I am not a supporter of hers. I cannot even vote down there. I have read a few comments and I believe that most Alaskans get a majority of their food from a suppermarket not from hunting. Here is a solution for the wolf problem(if their really is one)transfer them to the lower States and give us back the ones we sent there. Have we not learned anything???? Don’t %$#@ with mother nature and the natural order she has a way of getting even.
AERIAL killing of wolves is wrong and inhumane. Wolves are not the savages that they are made out to be — they take what they need for food, and not that much. Alaska has at most 11,000 wolves — there are more than one million caribou and more moose than the rest of the USA combined!
Ms. Palin continues to ignore the wishes of her people in favor of the hunting lobbies.
- Posted by Cynde MagidsonRick Rick Rick wolves do not eat animals that are alive they kill them first. They choose the weaker ones and only what they need. Nature is not always pretty everything has a place an order that has worked for centuries long before we were here. We must use our brains before a gun. This may be just a Palin smear if that is the it, it sucks, she has a right to her opinins as does Ms Judd. If these animals are bieng slaughtered it is senseless. If you want to reduce the wolf population kill off the food supply. We now can start shooting moose, caribo, and deer from a plane(if that is really what is happening).
- Posted by kenzoAll these liberal freaks need to find a more useful cause during these very trying times.
- Posted by B LEBOEUFi guess the caribu and moose do not suffer when they are being eaten alive by the wolves and bears.i say send a few of the wolves to hollywood and see how long it takes for ashley and her friends to ask for someone to take care of the problem.
- Posted by rick