Alaska biologists kill wolf pups to help caribou herd population
Published Saturday, July 19, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — State wildlife biologists killed 14 wolf pups as part of a predator control program to help a struggling caribou herd on the Alaska Peninsula two months ago.
The 4- to 5-week-old pups were caught at two den sites as biologists were shooting adult wolves from a helicopter near Cold Bay, about 600 miles southwest of Anchorage. Biologists shot and killed 14 adult wolves, including the mothers of the pups.
“As we got on the calving grounds, we took adults and in the course of taking adults we found there were pups,” said Doug Larsen, director of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation by phone from Juneau.
“The issue then was do we leave the pups to fend for themselves and starve or do we dispatch them,” Larsen said. “Our feeling was that it was most humane to dispatch them.”
Each pup was shot in the head.
“It’s a quick, humane way to kill them,” area management biologist Lem Butler said by phone from King Salmon.
Years ago, killing pups at dens, a practice called denning, was a traditional method used by Alaska Natives to control wolf populations. It has been outlawed for decades, though a Native group from Bethel is petitioning the state Board of Game to allow it in that region.
Larsen justified the pup killings as part of a plan to halt a “precipitous decline” in the Southern Alaska Peninsula Caribou Herd. The herd has declined from an estimated 4,100 animals to only 600 in the past six years, in large part because wolves are preying heavily on newborn calves.
“Nobody likes to go out and kill critters, particularly when they’re young of the year,” Larsen said. “But when you have a specific objective and that’s the way to achieve that objective, sometimes you have to do things that you don’t like.”
Larsen emphasized that killing pups wouldn’t become a standard practice for the department.
“I think it’s fair to say this was an extremely unique set of circumstances,” he said.
Achieving the goal
The department won the approval of the Alaska Board of Game to shoot wolves from a helicopter on the herd’s spring calving grounds in March. While there was no specific talk about killing pups, Larsen said “there was never any intent to do anything out of sorts with what the board was expecting.”
“The main goal was to turn around what has been a precipitous decline in the Southern Alaska Peninsula Caribou Herd; doing that involved removing wolves,” he said. “We killed 28 wolves as part of that program, and they came out of packs we identified and that was in keeping with the plan.”
The dens were on state land, just outside the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Had the dens been on federal land, “we wouldn’t have been in position to go in there,” Larsen said.
The state issued a press release about the removal of wolves on June 27, but it made no mention of killing pups, only that “wolves from three packs were shot from a helicopter by Alaska Department of Fish and Game staff.”
It was the first time in more than 20 years that department biologists shot and killed wolves from the air, and Butler said he felt the use of the helicopter was more pertinent than killing pups.
Omitting the pup killings “wasn’t an attempt to hide anything, by any means,” Larsen added.
Longtime independent Alaska wolf biologist Gordon Haber, who is often critical of the department’s wolf control programs, brought the pup killings to the attention of the News-Miner through a blog on his Web site, www.alaskawolves.org.
Haber, who focuses most of his attention on Denali Park wolves with the support of Outside animal-rights group Friends of Animals, said the department didn’t publicize the pup killings because they feared public backlash.
“They understood how strongly most people would react at the thought of state employees helicoptering to a couple of natal dens and, after killing the adult wolves, grabbing (14) frightened young pups and one-by-one blowing their brains out with a pistol,” Haber wrote in his blog.
No other options
The department explored options to prevent killing the pups before doing so, Butler said.
“We looked into potentially getting them adopted by a zoo but there were no available options,” he said.
This marked the first time Department of Fish and Game personnel have actively participated in a state predator control program in 15 years.
Prior to the action taken on the southern Alaska Peninsula, the state’s predator control plan has been limited to an army of private pilot/gunner teams shooting wolves from the air or ground in five different parts of the state, including three Interior regions, to help boost caribou and moose populations. Almost 800 wolves have been killed in the last four years.
An initiative on the primary ballot on Aug. 26 is seeking to make it illegal for anyone except state employees to shoot wolves from the air and only in cases that are declared a “biological emergency” by the commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game.
At this point, it appears that removing the wolves has increased calf survival in the Southern Alaska Peninsula herd, Butler said. Last year, less than 1 percent of newborn calves survived to four weeks old. This year, more than 50 percent of calves are still alive.
While Haber contends the herd will rebound without the help of wolf control, Larsen said state game managers didn’t want to take that chance.
“In any circumstance you can say, ‘Why don’t you stand back and let nature take its course here,’” Larsen said. “As somebody who’s responsible for managing Alaska’s wildlife and maintaining vital populations, it’s hard to watch that kind of thing.
“You can only hold off so long,” he said. “We held off as long as we should have.”
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
And we thought that there was little else that Alaska could do to further degrade our reputation.
Keep messing with the eco-system. Half those cubs would have died in the ist year.Let nature run it's course. Your going to end up like Yellowstone, you'll have so many caribou, then you have to import wolves. Can man screw up the system anymore?????
...Except we hunt and eat the caribou so a population explosion would be temporary... and delicious.
Mowry
I beieve the line should read: Its a lot MORE humane than leaving them out there.
they let nature take it's course in california now and a good chunk of it burned down this summer. if nature had any collective conciousness we could call it really stupid. and why, pray tell, should i care what people Outside of alaska think of us?
The department did the right thing. Why does everyone think this is Disney and all those pups would have grown up to be upstanding citizens of the community. They would have starved or been killed by other animals. Nature is cruel. Don't forget it.
And how many dogs and puppies did this borough animal shelter kill this year? These animals didn't walk into the shelter, people brought them in to be killed. Why is it a few wolves being killed causes such an uproar, but we look the other way at the situation we are the most responsible for, overpopulation of dogs.
Here, Here! Fish & Feathers doing it's job. You have my full support.
And PETA-- Go back downstates & sniff your poseys. We manage game for harvest, not watching. (Personally I prefer the People For Eating Tasty Animals version)
Three cheers for Fish and Game and the State of Alaska. Now, lets do the same in other parts of the country.
Humm- maybe get some of the spaded of neutered might have had the same effect I don't think DNR has the right to be judge trial and jury.
Maybe the DNR needs to spaded of neutered because there seems to be an overpopulation of them around.
Fish & Game got themselves into a lose-lose situation by allowing the ecosystem to get out of balance to start with. Too many caribou overgrazed their range, supported lots of wolves, eventually yielding low calf survival due to lack of food and a temporary plethora of predators. The caribou crashed because of a lack of food. The wolves would've eventually crashed anyway but no one wanted the caribou herd to bottom out to an irrecoverably low number. So, ADFG had to spend tens of thousands of dollars blasting wolves that would have died anyway. And then they had to stoop to the lowest level and blast the brains out of the pups. All caused by poor management, probably yet another ill-conceived predator control project decades ago, which led to too many caribou (i.e. more caribou than the ecosystem could support). Poor Lem Butler hasn't worked for ADFG for very long - he's just having to pick up the pieces from his short-sighted predecessors.
A look from the outside of the ADFG box,would made me wonder.
1.Increase Hunting opportunity for outfitters and guides in the cold bay district.
2.Outside hunters and tourism will bring in more Revenue opportunities for the economy.
3. Blame the wolf and the pups for collapse of the Caribou herd Population
and heres my unanswer questions
1.Collapse of the Caribou herd population is cost by over hunting and a small percentage is by the wolfs.
2.Mismanagement by ADFG
3.With this tactic used by ADFG, will this be use for the Western Arctic Caribou herd,which had a 20 percent drop and again blame the wolf.
ADFG Really need to be accountable for the actions taken,I would ask what percentage was factored into this program,that is why reporting is so important on the amount of Caribou killed in that region by the hunters versus wolves and what factors was cause by the climate and illness.
It is now up to the board of Fish and Game and take the Blame of Mismanagement in that district,and quit blaming the wolfs.
I wouldn't mind them giving me a wolf pup for a pet.
killem all and get it over!
Wolves killing caribou is bad. People killing caribou is good. People killing wolves is bad. Nature killing wolves is good. Nature out of balance is bad. Nature in balance is good. Hindsight is more accurate than foresight. Keep arguing these philosophical questions, it's entertaining reading.
Given the situation, I think the DNR did the right thing at the time to reduce the preditors on State land to give the caribou herd a chance to recover. 600 caribou with a birth rate of less than 6 calves a year is not sustaining the herd much less recovering.
Last year unit 9D was closed to hunting caribou and hunters could take 10 wolves a day. No one complained about the possibility of killing 2,700 wolves per hunter over the course of the season. I don't know what the uproar is with a field team from ADF&G killing 28 while no one has taken advantage of the liberal bag limits on wolves. Liberal bag limits do not increase demand for a resource.
If wolves were as tasty or profitable to take, then more people would actively hunt them. I don't have the time currently to invest in hunting wolves actively, but if I see one while afield I will take advantage of the opportunity. What sense would it make to leave one wolf to starve or survive when you are implementing a preditor control program? Mission accomplished ADF&G team, good job.
The fact that some/most of you are convinced that the Department of Natural Resources is somehow involved in this situation is indicative of not only your lack of education about the issue, but also the structure of the organization(s) that you're defending.
I ask this: How egocentric are we, really, to believe that we have the right, or, really, the responsibility, to change the balance of a natural cycle that's been happening for hundreds of thousands of years?
After reading the comments I am appalled be the stupidty of people. Congradulations to the ADF&G? Why should we care what others think about what we do in Alaska? How about eco tourism, fools? How many dollars does that put in our pockets? You do not care about them? When our oil runs out and the mines close what do you have?
I have wittnessed hunters wasting caribou. Wasting Moose! The problem is not the Wolf! It is all the pressure from all the special interest groups. Lodges and private citizens. Let us keep our resource, Moose and caribou for Alaskans only.
Killing wolves for the sake of greed and stupidity only makes Alaskans look like uneducated slobs....and we call ourselves Christians? Funny all of this has to do with money and greed. Shame on all of us!
The Armed Forces should adopt the pups, instead of killing them, modify their genetic structure with a little dose of gamma radiation and presto! Battle wolves we could send to Iraq, let them sniff out the insurgents and put REAL fear into those who oppose us!
I mis-spoke DNR had nothing to do with my error or the preditor control program. Apologies to DNR.
sdoownek: "How egocentric are we, really, to believe that we have the right, or, really, the responsibility, to change the balance of a natural cycle that's been happening for hundreds of thousands of years?" I am smart enough to know that I am flesh and blood and part of the natural cycle and we have been changing the balance for good and bad. Without the brains God gave me along with an opposable thumb and a trigger finger, I wouldn't stand a chance in Nature.
I applaud the ADF&G hunters for doing their job to the fullest extent. I don't agree with the board of game on all of their management ideas, but I cannot see any fault with the shooter for shooting the wolves. They did their mandated job and did not waste an opportunity to do it efficiently.
This might spark a good public debate on bag limits, preditor control, and wantan waste by the ADF&G and the BOG. I did not see any info regarding the pelts, or the meat disposition.
It is amazing that University of Alaska is not part of the program and would learn a lot about nature and its course and the state funds this organization receives yearly,or the Arctic Research Labatory.
Years back there was a boundry on wolf and what ever happen than has been stored away in someone closet.
"The caribou crashed because of a lack of food."
"Collapse of the Caribou herd population is cost by over hunting and a small percentage is by the wolfs"
These statements (from comments above) make absolutely no sense in light of the following two statements from the original article:
"The herd has declined from an estimated 4,100 animals to only 600 in the past six years, in large part because wolves are preying heavily on newborn calves."
"Last year, less than 1 percent of newborn calves survived to four weeks old. This year, more than 50 percent of calves are still alive."
It is obvious that both the severe decline of the caribou herd and last year's significant upsurge in calf survival is directly related to predators killing newborn calves.
How true it is that these are not 'Disney wolves.' The American public has become enamoured with the friendly, fluffy wolves they see in movies. These "wolves," almost without exception, are played by friendly, fluffy Alaskan Malamutes. Bathed, brushed, and highly trained. Too bad the American public can't see the wolves as they really are - beautiful at times, true, but often scruffy and scragly, mangy, mean, nasty, and very dangerous. Sure, there is nothing quite like hearing a wolf howl at sunrise. And a wolf can be a beautiful animal. But the American image of the wolf is far from an accurate one.
What gets me is not the Disney wolves. It is the hatred and fear people have for wolves. They hang the wolves over their planes like a trophy, as if they did some great deed. We keep messing with mother nature. Forget the effects of CLIMATE CHANGE...oh let us not go there....yes open your eyes it is real.
Funny one statement...to bad the Amercian public can not see wolves as scragly, mangy, mean, nasty and very dangerous.... That is a perfect ddescription of many humans I know and live around. Shame on our selfish and thoughtless view of what makes the wild wlid...I hear the same statement about bears.
That is why we have wars and why we kill anything we do not understand. Wolves are far from REAL DANGEROUS...if you have that fear do not cross the street or drive a car.. I guess the IQ of the country has gone down in the last year to match our glorious Presdient. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
My picture of the Wolf is very accurate. God forgive us for our stupidity and greed
Aren't humans part of nature? Or are we some invading alien race to planet earth? If we are part of nature then isn't us killing the wolves letting nature takes its course? Just wandering.
We are part of nature but we do things a such a destructive manner. Humans throw off the balance, things did very well before us and will do well after us. Look what we have accomplished in over 200 years? If we keep the pace us there will be no place to hunt unless it is Game Ranch, or Rivers that have Wild Salmon. We are beyond effective hunter.. we are wreckless. Aliens? No just thoughtless. I hunt to eat, not to bolster my EGO. I learned to hunt and Fish at 5 with respect to surrounding enviornment. I have witnessed rivers and steames, great hunting areas in my youth get gobbled up by greed and wreckless behavior.
What about culling the black bears? How about culling some of us? We are the problem, not the wolves or bears. We act like Aliens. We figured out how to send a man to the moon, how about figuring out why the caribou are failng... there are many reasons. Is it manifest destiny that everyone has to kill a caribou and moose every year?
When we go out of way to kill wolves in large numbers for the sake of greed that is not nature. We can use the excuse of man doing mother natures bidding when it comes to wolves and caribou, but let us not mess with global warming. Yes I said it again. Funny they told Columbus the world was flate? Could this be the same for Global warming? Opps said it again. Just maybe it is having and effect on all living things. Some conservative thought is just plain stupid.
We are supposed to be stwards of the land...It is the lack od education....period.
The right thing was done!! We manage game for abundance, ie: hunting.
Nature is hard, life is hard,SO GET OVER IT!!
At one point wolves were scarce in Alaska. Since man stepped in and "helped" wolves are over populating and ranges are now beyond what they were before we re-introduced them. So saying that "we should stop manupilating nature to our desire" should be applied equally or not at all. Man in all his or her faults should not be blamed for stepping in when necessary. Re-introducing caribou for the sake of 28 wolves might be more costly in the long run both for the wolf population and for man's so called greed. By the way, I think just maybe there aren't more than a hand full of hunters that hunt that area for caribou but the herd sustains a much larger wolf and bear popluation.
akflower, if you believe everything you read in the DNM, you're going to be misled on occasion. Just because they wrote that "The herd has declined from an estimated 4,100 animals to only 600 in the past six years, in large part because wolves are preying heavily on newborn calves." Doesn't make it true. A precipitous decline like that is most likely due to overgrazed habitat resulting in an unhealthy herd, which then dies from disease, etc. and, yes, also to predation. When a herd is at 4,100, it will support a good number of wolves - far more than will a herd of 600. The wolf population will remain at a relative high for a while after the crash of its prey, thus, killing many, if not most, of the weakest in the herd (i.e. calves), which is why the next sentence says, "Last year, less than 1 percent of newborn calves survived to four weeks old. This year, more than 50 percent of calves are still alive." Yes, those calves are still alive but I'm guessing this "success" will be short-lived, especially if the caribou have overgrazed their winter range. Lichen takes between 50 and 100 years to recover from overgrazing, fire, etc. This herd will be low for decades to come. The wolves would have crashed naturally, with or without being shot from helicopters. The problem is that the herd was getting so low that the fear was that the caribou wouldn't recover. If humans hadn't mismanaged the herd to begin with, allowing it to reach unsustainably high numbers to feed our greed for easy and accessible hunting, resulting in long-term damage to the range, this would not have happened.
shaltnotkill, I keep wanting to respond to your postings, yet I can't seem to isolate a logical statement to respond to.
I don't quite understand what you are trying to say.
I do agree that we are to be stewards of the land. We are also supposed to be stewards of the animals that inhabit the land. They were given to us for food. That is not greed. Wanton waste is not even greed - it is just disregard for the value of the resource.
I love animals. They are beautiful and unique. But I also eat them. It's all part of the plan. You can't eat them without killing them. I just don't understand what you are trying to say.
If you think things are bad now just wait until people begin packing their bags in the lower 48 and move north to avoid the drought and intense heat in the coming decades. This mass migration will induce further stress on the wolf and carbibou as the human population displacement encroaches on their habitat and stresses their numbers. All this on top of the changing climate will be catastrophic. Already, we're seeing starvation in Greenland reindeer herds due to the climate shift and the onset of freezing rain that has destroyed their food. Somehow, we desperately need to live harmoniously with wolves. They are one of the last predatory megafauna species left in North America and it is our duty to preserve this beautiful piece of our natural heritage. They will have no chance if we don't stop senselessly killing them in the name of hunting. Who needs caribou stew anyways?
Shallnotkill: First you agree and say we are nature but then ridicule humans for doing what we do. You say we are destructive. And nature isn't? What about all the "NATURAL" disasters? I also hunt to eat and never for sport. I hunt a any bull moose area so I can get the first one I see that'll feed my family. Does that make me a great person like you?!?
You also say things did well before us. Now that is opening one big can of canadian red worms there. Many in this world will disagree with you on that one.
Another statement that I don't understand is "Wolves are not "REAL DANGEROUS"... What about my neighbors dogs killed last winter as the wolves moved into town. So I guess it would've been safe to let my 7yo walk to the end of the street to wait on the bus even though the tracks were all around our house and the wolves were seen several times in the morning by our house, cause heck they aren't dangerous.
Why, when in some parts of the country people would pay good money for pet wolves are they killed like pests? Isn't it more economically effective to hypo dart them, sedate them and ship them out to someone who'll pay $500 for a pup?
Just from a financial point of view it doesn't make good sense.
Then there's the bad PR you always get for killing wolves, deserved or not. Wouldn't it be smarter to sell them?
but no it wouldnt better, killing seems bad, but selling them to the highest bidder isnt any better! if people wouldnt have stepped in, the wolves would have starved within a few years anyway, at least this was a quick and painless. and it give the caribou a chance to bounce back, at least somewhat.
You "killing" people are all insane. Why do you think it's necessary to kill everything? You claim that you kill the wolves (bear, wolverines, etc.) so you can hunt moose and so there is more for you to kill. This is so egocentric. Perhaps you should stop having so many children so that you have less mouths to feed.
alaskaflower-- animals were not given to us for us to feed on. We currently are the highest evolved animal-- and being that we have brains (or some of us do) and opposable thumbs means that we know how to exist without killing animals.
its called "wildlife managment", it seems bad, but it is better for the stable populations of animals. Thats a fact, people hunt, but through "wildlife mangament" they keep the populations steady, its better for the long run w/ people and wildlife in alaska.
pupster are you one of those people that eat them vegetable things? Why do you kill those poor, poor carrots? You know they are living things too, and you call us "killing" people insane. Is that in your "professional" opinion or are all the tomatoe juices getting to you?
If the animals weren't given to us to feed on then exactly why are they here? I think you should use that brain you have and hang out with them for a few months then come back and let the rest of us folks know.
"alaskaflower-- animals were not given to us for us to feed on. We currently are the highest evolved animal-- and being that we have brains (or some of us do) and opposable thumbs means that we know how to exist without killing animals."
You're entitled to your opinion. But that's ALL it is.
Wolves as PETS??!
Do you have any idea how many children have been attacked and even killed by pet wolves and wolf/dog hybrids?
"to change the balance of a natural cycle"
In tree hugger theories they always seem to leave out man as any part of the "natural cycle".
And thanks this gem...."and opposable thumbs means that we know how to exist without killing animals."
As someone once said: You are what you eat. Which completely explains vegetarians"
First off, learn proper spelling and punctuation if you are writing here. Views written like a monkey are discredited, as they should be. Just because people in the past killed pups and cubs in their dens does not mean it is a respectable practice. It reminds me of the thieves who steal copper piping from abandoned homes. What a feat !! When populations of game and resouces like timber and oil fluctuate, as they did before us, we should make do with other options such as a garden and some home-raised animals to eat. And by the way, my friend has an 80% wolf dog, and he is a very gentle, well behaved animal. It all comes down to how you treat the animal when it is young. Raising your own food also gives you piece of mind that the food you are eating is not polluted by our much loved military and big businesses who have no fear of repercussions when their work and experiments go wrong. And for all of you do-it-yourselfers, I learned a way to make diesel that is virtually free and only takes about 12 hours. If you are interested, write me at jackruby69@hotmail.com, and I will send you directions. Long live the traditions of AK, and get out there and do what you enjoy, including eating cubs and pups if that's your thing. Delta Doug
Wolves as pets? That's ridiculous, but killing wolf pups like those biologists did is not sound science. It is manipulated by a growing human need that nature can no longer support without these kinds of terrible deeds. Killing animals like this is wrong. It sends the wrong kind of message to our children. Modern civilization in the 1st world sense, however, is sort of getting the picture. There is greater awareness in the world that these animals have their place and they deserve the kind of respect we grant our own kind. Unfortunately, we still murder and kill our own kind and where does that leave the "pesky" little wolf? Something needs to change!
Easiest way to kill wolves is to make them pets, look what we have done to dogs. It wasn't to long ago in Fairbanks when the wolves came into Chena Hot Springs road area and started going after dogs that a lot people began crying that their children waiting for school buses would be next. Demanding that Fish and Game take them out before they could harm a child. Seems like you can not have it both ways.
alaskaflower said-"Do you have any idea how many children have been attacked and even killed by pet wolves and wolf/dog hybrids?"
Now, do YOU (alaskaflower) have any idea how many people have been killed by horses and horse/donkey hybrids?, a dangerous animal is a dangerous animal so why cant people have a wolf for a pet?
I've had a wolf hybrid, from pup to grave he NEVER bit anybody and never killed more than he could eat.
Delta Doug is an ewish procesor I gwess.
MANKIND HAS NO BUSINESS PLAYING "GOD" LET NATURE TAKE ITS COURSE, IN THE END IF WE KEEP OUT OF IT..EVERYTHING WILL BALANCE OUT. WHAT IS NEXT HUMAN POPULATION CONTROL..HMMM THAT MIGHT NOT BE A BAD IDEA!!!
Have any of you traveled to the lower 48 any time in the recent past? I grew up in the south, and last fall I went back for a visit. For the first time in my life, I saw deer hit on the interstate. Not one deer, either. It seemed every half mile there would be another beautiful dead buck. They're all starving and having to wander farther and farther to find acorns, which are in terribly short supply because of the drought. And the human element is the eliminaton of all predators from that area of the country. Things are so out of whack that hunting is really organized slaughter of overpopulated, starving, diseased animals. Is that what you'd like to see here? I find it horrific. I eat game and prefer it, but that doesn't mean I want predators "controlled" to the point of elimination. People are definitely a part of the circle of life, but people also tend to take more than they need, have technology to extend their reach and impact, and are arrogant enough to think they can "manage" wild populations. Problem is, once you start tinkering, you can never stop. And it seems inevitable that we'll always "manage" with the intent of helping ourselves, but end up shooting ourselves in the foot instead.
Wolves can be kept as pets, as LostAlaskan pointed out. Maybe not the kind of pet that sleeps on the couch with a bunch of small children playing around it, but for some people it's possible. I'd rather not get in to an argument about the ethics of keeping wolves as pets, I agree there are valid arguments for and against the idea. Although essentially isn't this what people did hundreds of years ago? Catch and domesticate wolves and keep them as the pets we know today as dogs?
Either way, it has to be a better alternative to killing 14 wolf pups. And a more economical alternative too. There is a ranch near where I live in Oregon called Howling Acres, it's a Wolf Sanctuary. They would have been more than willing to take these orphan wolf pups in.
So essentially, if there is an alternative to killing something, then why kill? It's not that I'm squeamish, but this just seems like killing for ill-thought out reasons.
There are people out there who love wolves and places where they can live without being a threat to caribou populations.
http://www.howlingacres.org/
I find that what you Alaskans are doing to our nation's wildlife is absolutely disgraceful and barbaric. Why in hell just not leave nature alone and let it progress according to its own laws? Aerial gunning, killing pups -- this goes against all humanity and is interfering in natural processes.
Why do humans continue to think that they are better than every other species on this Earth? We have to control everything so we can live our nice and comfortable lives. I can't wait for all humanity to be exterminated and have balance restored to nature and the Earth.
As a hunter in Georgia, it shames me to be associated with humans who have so little regard for the hunt, the predators, and the ecosystem in which these exist. As "pawprint" correctly stated, Georgia is overrun by our herds of white tail. The herd exhibits blue tongue, starvation, and spike horns. All are indicators of overpopulation. There is simply not enough skilled hunters to offset the imbalance caused by the removal of our natural predators. Sure, we have lots of "yahoos" falling out of tree stands to take a shot at sunset before they go home. Those people do not produce results beyond maybe shooting one their hunting buddies. It takes time and effort to track your quarry, place your stand, and sit stock still for hours or even days. Though Caribou may not be nearly as sneaky as White Tails, you can bet they must have skills or they would have been naturally selected for extinction long ago.
Also.. your rules for shooting pregnant bear sows and sows with cubs is brutal, barbaric, immoral, and just down right insane. Why not learn how to hunt them in the real season rather than taking cheap shots through poor regulation? Are you so blood thirsty or just too darn lazy to bother to learn how to track and kill an animal during the regular season? Are you too lazy to be bothered to store your garbage and food properly when you know full well you live in bear country?
I hope this is not the case, since for a long while I have held my uncle and his family from Alaska in high regard as a resourceful, moral, respectful, intelligent, and enterprising people. Up until all the news about your state has been aired, I had the general idea that many Alaskans are similar to my uncle's quality.
Yet.. these disgraceful laws lead me to question my position on how I view one our brother states.
Reading some of the comments made here turns my stomach. I used to believe Sarah Palin was the result of some freak accident but now I see where she gets her supporters. There is NO justification for killing wolves, not in Alaska nor anywhere else in the world. To validate the wolfkillings in this case the caribou are mentioned as being threatened. Threatened by who? The wolves? Or the hunters? The wolves are predators and carnivores, if you take away their natural food source who do you think they will come after instead. Probably livestock and domestic dogs and other animals. The wolves have equal right to exist as do we humans. Who made us judge and jury? Who says we have the right to decide who shall live and who won't? I fear for Alaska, USA and the rest of the world if Palin and her supporters make it to Washington. What a sad place the world will become...
bacons good.... porkchops are good....
Any human who can thoughtlessly kill/abuse ANY animal wouldn't hesitate to kill another human. We are not better than animals and have no more right to be here than they do. They were created first and were here on earth first. Maybe we should rescue all the animals in Alaska and move them to a place they can live a quite life and put all the human barbarians who think nothing of killing a harmless animal adult or baby in Alaska and let them kill each other off. That's the sect of the human species that needs to be eliminated or segregated. Humans aren't born predators or killers it is a learned characteristic of a weak person.
I deplore the killing of any animal, but the question no one seems to address is whether this killing consisted in any way of an illegal action on the part of Governor Palin or anyone else. If the legislature has legalized this form of killing, then it's up to the people to address the Legislature in Alaska, not the ones enforcing the law. If anyone abused or misapplied existing laws by killing wolves in this manner, then there is no doubt: they should be prosecuted. End of story? Not quite. If laws were abused, we need to further ask: will the one who abused them respect other laws of the state and country? That question can't be answered, but history does shed light on future actions.
I've spent most of my life with wolves and hybrids, now illegal in this state likely due to someone thinking they were like pet dogs... (irresponsible management for that canine species, preventing those who ARE responsible and know how from doing so....) So I could not be a home for those pups.... and they had to die...
Wolves don't go for trophy animals, taking them from the gene pools, but what do wolves know, they've only been managing wildlife for millions of years....
If we are so intellegent then locally there are areas where wolf numbers are down, and transporting these individuals (each as individual as your dog), there would have been, more intellegent....
I did not breed my wolves, they were adopted from the human society, they were my sled team. I can now, not replace, I know wolf 40+ yrs, not husky. Nor would I have husky owners give up theirs, for wolves, nor if I lived in a city have them, or the horse (have one)...
This is not the 40's, we need to change and use great caution with our resources, for the next generations who will hold them with greater value than this one does. I run on wind and solar, not waiting for my leaders anymore.
I feel it is more intellegent, if we live with this earth, rather than off of it, and if so intellegent, lets use that, and show America and this world, a better way to live.
Even a wolf knows, you cant get ahead of the herd by following it.
I seek leadership, that cares about the next generations, not just this one. The wolf and caribou and moose have been here millions of years, but, what do they know....?
We wont know if we kill them, then ask, if there was a better way, later. Wolves do not belong in homes trying to turn them into Labradors. But they once belonged in mine, and were treated with love honor and respect, and had lives, enriched mine and worked for a living just like I do. Until they became illegal as lifetime companions and we started killing them.
I follow the laws (have no canines for the first time in my life), even if I don't respect them, I'm an American and that's my job to respect our laws, like it or not......
Just one voice in semi-remote Alaska. Howling, in a world that now has an emptiness so loud it shouts. What others have killed, I would have given so so much, to have given them lives.... and filled this empty silence again.
50yrs old, grow wheat and make sourdough bread and my own power and transportation (until now), but what do I know, just an old man, I dont make these rules, they are made in the cities that tell me how live "with" the land and the earth, they know better... you cant live with nature, in Alaska we kill and rape it instead? Does not sound like a path I wish to follow... nor be led. I see a cliff,
I turned away from it, while I had the freedom to do so. And a life once rich with love from wolves, must be silenced.
big game hunters loooove hunting and eating big game like moose and caribou. it brings in lots of dollars and big game hunter lobbies also have lots of loot to toss to politicians like my fave white trash leader palin. it's not really about conservation and caribou young. human greed, ignorance, and ego has a way of obliterating our wildlife and environment. i highly recommend that we neuter and spay these politicians. same goes to those who like to obliterate the wildlife or blow puppy brains out. aaah if only i ruled the world... i would hold an open season on ego hunters/trophy big game hunters/and corrupt politicians that allow these abominations to happen. i would allow arial hunting of these miscreants from helicopters. 150 for their right arm. and for the next jack ass who writes a nasty retort to this comment...yes, you are white trash. go back to whatever place you crawled out of, get drunk, and go hunting. with any luck you will take your ass out of the gene pool.
Next time you guys get the urge to kill those little cubs how about a wolf reservation to save them or sending me one to raise. Seems so stupid to be killing little cubs. Population control?! Right, humans are over populating the world and you don't see other people shooting orphans in the head because they don't have parents.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.