Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Have Defenders of Wildlife lost key fund raiser: Gov. Palin?
Sarah Palin’s looming departure from the governor’s office in Alaska may deprive at least one animal welfare group of a key source of green.
The moose-hunting and ultra-conservative hockey mom shot to national prominence last year as John McCain’s vice presidential running mate on the losing Republican ticket. Palin, who in a surprise move said on Friday that she would step down this month as Alaskan governor, remains a political lighting rod who is loved and loathed in equal measure.
This polarizing profile has made her a major fund raising force for the Republican Party. It has also made her a focal point for groups staunchly opposed to her politics and policies.
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has been using Palin’s support of the aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska as a peg to bring attention to the issue – and also it seems to drum up some donations amid the recessionary crunch.
The home page on its web site says: “Help Stop Palin’s Wolf Slaughter: DONATE NOW”.
The seven press releases it has issued so far this year on its online newsroom have one main topic: Palin and wolf hunting.
Palin strikes back on wolf allegations
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.”
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.
Judd versus Palin on wolves
Sarah Palin still has environmentalists howling.
The Alaska governor and former Republican vice presidential hopeful is the target of a campaign by the Washington-based Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund which claims she is pushing for an expanded program for the shooting of wolves from the sky.
In a graphic video narrated by Hollywood star Ashley Judd, the group claims Palin even offered a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf collected. You can view the video here.
“When Sarah Palin came on the national scene last summer, few knew that she promotes the brutal aerial killing of wolves. Now, back in Alaska, Palin is again casting aside science and championing the slaughter of wildlife,” Judd says in the video, which features footage of a wolf howling in pain after apparently being shot from the sky.
(Photo: Palin works a crowd, Dec 1, 2008. REUTERS/Tami Chappell, USA)
On its web site, the group said in a statement that: “Governor Palin is expected shortly to introduce state legislation that would dramatically expand the aerial killing program by removing the few remaining scientific requirements from the program. ” Palin’s office was contacted by Reuters and was not immediately available for comment.
Palin confuses me how can someone like her think that having a child before it is born killed even though if the child doesn’t die it is a possible risk to both parent and child wrong and yet see no shame in killing living breathing dreaming goal setting wolves tortured from the air until they finally die?
I am not against all hunting
And I think abortion is necisary if the child and parent risk getting killed if the abortion doesn’t happen
but sporthunting and killing children just because you were in it for the sex is wrong having children is a comitment and we are suppost to set an example for others
In summary SARAH AND ASHLEY STOP BEING FUNDAMENTALISTS AND STOP FIGHTING!!!!!
I find it always intresting that the people who don’t live in Alaska or Idaho want to control what the citizens of that state does. Let me educate you on wolves. They are not cute cuddly things. They are blood thirsty killers with no feelings. They rip fetusus out of living cow elk and eat the hearts and then leaves the cow elk to die a miserable death. Now, it’s called states rights. I know that not everyone in Alaska wants to be a vegitarain. So, they kill to eat. What may I ask are they going to kill if the wolves wipe out the caribou, moose? Oh thats right just run down to the groccery store and buy a chicken or some vegies. Some people are so far removed from where your food comes from. You think that chicken just plopped down on your dinner plate? Mind your own business in your state.