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Sat 8 Nov, 2003 02:31 pm
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Alaska Board of Game on Tuesday approved the state's first program in more than 15 years to shoot wolves from aircraft, despite a campaign by opponents decrying the plan as inhumane.
In ballot measures in 1996 and 2000, Alaska voters essentially banned aircraft-assisted land-and-shoot wolf hunting. However, regulations allowing state biologists to shoot wolves from the air for predator control remain on the books, but Murkowski has refused to let state employees do the work.
MY point in making this post is not if wolfs need to be thinned to sustain the moose population but rather that, the "people" of the state have twice voted to not allow shooting wolves from aircraft.
Bookmarking--I don't want to post anything right now because I would probably say something I would be asked to retract. I will say, though, that this is obscene, not only in the name of sportsmanship, but in the name of the voters of Alaska.
I love wolves! Why anyone would want to shoot them is beyond me!
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i got no wolves here but i got coyotes sitting on my steps in the morning, when i come home at dusk, all night roaming about.
i haven't seen a rabbit here all year,,,,they've eaten them all. and i'm afraid my cat and dog are next and so are they.
my friends and neighbours pets are killed or maimed,,,
we're about ready to lace some meat sorry to say. enough is enough.
we're over run here with the damn things. thank god they are not wolves.
This reminds me of what my business partner's son went through as he was working his way up in boat delivery business. He once hired on as a captain on some tuna fishing yacht.
Turned out that the folks batted at the tuna, like baseballs.
That didn't work out.
I realize there is a possible difference in intent, perhaps, between the tuna batterers and aircraft shooters. but am not all so sure of that. Culling from airplanes, can't we rethink this?.
Okay, not that Im all for animal cruelty or inhumane practices but, Im not against culling etc either.
HOWEVER....my first question would be...okay..its up in Alaska. Why are they doing this from planes? Is it because its in a remote area? If so, then why are they doing it?
Also, if not in so much of a remote area but, perhaps maybe not an easily traversed area..same questions.
Wolves do spend a great deal of time in dens, which arent eactly the easiet thing to find even to the trained eye.
I think there must be some reasoning behind this that I just dont see the facts on and without that, I couldnt say one way or the other.
As far as the people voting against it in the 90's and 2000...well, you know its now 3..almost 4 years later and you just never know what has changed in either the area or the wolf population as well as the impact of any of that. Id want to know more about that as well before just saying well...years ago it was voted this way...dont make it right today.
Quinn, my stepfather lived in Alaska in the 50's and mentioned hunters going for polar bears from airplanes. To me, they are status hunters who just want a trophy and don't want to be bothered by the concept of sportsmanship.
I think culling can be the most humane action if the animal population such as deer, have become so populous that they can't find enough to eat; but to actually hunt from an airplane, for game animals, is abhorent.
As for coyotes, I have a special place in my heart for them, even though I know they have become a problem. I sympathize with you Mikey, but I wonder if baiting them with poisoned meat is the best way to go. What if a neighborhood dog found a dead coyote and started to eat it? He would soon be dead as the coyote. There are no easy answers.
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