Posted on 05/04/2010 7:04:50 PM PDT by Josh Painter
* The organization Defenders of Wildlife would like you to believe that the group's name describes what they are all about. This is the mission statement:
Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities.While that may have indeed been the organization's goal at one time in its history, today that mission statement is a lie. Truth is, Defenders is nothing more than a front group for radical leftist politics. Consider that if the group's real purpose was protecting animals in their natural communities, they would show at least a modicum of concern for the herd animals -- caribou and moose -- which are the prey of wolves. But no, all the hacks want to talk about are fuzzy, lovable wolves.
One doesn't have to do much research to learn that if left alone, wolves would decimate the herds in Alaska. Do the math. Wolves bear litters of four to five puppies at a time, while caribou and moose are limited to single births. Those same caribou and moose are the wolves' favorite food group, and their hunting tactics are deadly efficient. Every time the State of Alaska has taken a hiatus from controlling the wolf population, the numbers of herd animals quickly drop to alarming levels. We say "alarming" because Alaska's native people depend on hunting caribou and moose to feed their families.
Most native Alaskans live in very small, remote villages which don't have supermarkets, and even if they did, the price of beef and pork would be prohibitive for the natives, many of whom live at the subsistence level. Indeed, many of the villages are so remote that electric power transmission cables and natural gas lines are only a pipe dream. They burn wood for heat and have to depend on portable generators for electricity. The primary modes of transportation are dog sleds and four-wheelers. Hunting caribou and moose is not a sport for these people, and it is much more than a tradition. It is a necessity.
This is why the Fish & Game Department practices scientific predator control. It's not done of out rank cruelty, as Defenders and other such groups insinuate, but rather to protect the herds from their primary predators -- the wolves. What is cruel is what wolves do to the young of the herds, as watching this video from Defenders of Wild Food will demonstrate:
Which is more humane -- a clean shot through the head of a wolf, or or the pack running down and eating caribou calves alive? Now we have no quarrel with letting the wolves getting a meal in the wild, but again, in certain areas, to keep them from driving down the herds' numbers to dangerously low levels, the wolves' numbers have to be managed through the practice of predator control.
Defenders of Wild Food is an organization which was formed to fight the lies being spread about wolves in Alaska by the well-financed Defenders of Wildlife, and to educate people about the importance of wildlife to the everyday lives of Alaskans.
We've covered all of this before, here, here, here and here, just to cite a few of our posts on the issue.
But again, it's not about wolves or wildlife. To answer the question posed in the title of this post, no, Defenders of Wildlife, at least those who control it, are not that stupid. In its present-day incarnation, the group exists primarily for the purpose of promoting the radical far left political agenda. That's why they ignore the facts of Alaskan life and continue to their attacks. And those attacks, especially since the day she was named to the number two spot on the 2008 GOP presidential ticket, have been almost exclusively aimed at Sarah Palin. It's clear to anyone capable of rational though that the aim of these leftists is not to save wolves, but to destroy Sarah Palin.
One thing that leftists abhor is the unencumbered presentation of both sides of an issue so that people can decide for themselves. Free speech is not an option for anyone but those who are on their side of the issues, so they are pouring their considerable resources into an all-out campaign to try to convince Discover Networks, Inc. to drop the series "Sarah Palin's Alaska" before it even gets a chance to air. Rather than let people decide with the channel button on their remote controls, the leftists want to silence the former governor.
Please take action. Let Discovery Communications know that you support their production of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” there are two ways to do this. The easier option is to sign this petition. You will have the option of including comments, if you so wish.
You can also write a letter to David Zaslav, Discovery’s CEO. Please let him know that Gov. Palin is regarded as a conservationist by those familiar with the principles of wildlife management and predator control, and the anti-Palin rhetoric coming from Defenders is at best an unscientific, emotional appeal and at worse pure politics. Mr. Zaslav's address is:
David M. Zaslav
President and CEO
Discovery Communications Inc.
One Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910
You can also send Discovery an email about its programming by clicking here.
Thank you for supporting Gov. Palin and reasonable, scientific methods of wildlife management.
- JP
Ack! Apologies for the typos, FRiends. The spell checker worked fine, but forgot to use a grammar checker. My bad.
- JP
Article forgot to mention that wolves out-compete Griz for food too. Lots of emmaciated Griz sows in the lower 48.
Ref the attack on a man near Cody, WY last June.
This might be a little misleading. If I remember correctly, most of the time only the alpha female in the pack breeds and has puppies. So the growth rate is a good deal less than implied.
It's really very simple. Wolves, as apex predators, breed up in numbers till they bring down the numbers of prey animals. Eventually a rough equilibrium is reached.
Unforetunately for the wolves, humans in AK are also apex predators and want the same prey animals. If the wolves are allowed to reach their natural equilibrium with their prey, there will be a great many fewer moose and caribou for the Alaskans to hunt.
Yes. Before man came in large numbers, there was a rough equilibrium.
The question is: What kept the balance before the AK government stepped in to manage the predators?
Answer: Nature, which manages wildlife for the good of the animals and eco system. It does not practice game management, which is based on sport/trophy hunting.
This has NOTHING to do with helping the native peoples, it is all about making sure there are plenty of trophies for non natives to shoot, stuff and take home as bragging points.
It is little different across the entire US, predators are shot to maintain unhealthy balances of deer, elk, moose, and other “game species” so sport/trophy hunters can have a thrill and feel like “real” men. All under the guise of doing natures job by keeping the species from starving or overpopulating. yet hunters NEVER shoot the weak or old, which are targeted by natural predators. They want trophies, trophies, and more trophies.
Shoooting a deer, moose or elk is no more difficult than shooting a cow in a pasture. The guides and huntesr just make it seem more than it is to aid the fantasy and $$$.
Yes, I am a former hunter and I know the truth.
The two things are not mutually exclusive. Indians collected “trophies” by killing animals. One of great liberal myths is that Indians were these naturalists for whom a balance of nature was a kind of religious duty. Yes and No. Certain animal has totemistic value and hence a kind of respect, but by and large Indians killed as many animals as were useful to them. They were always short on meat, probably never getting enough protein. As in all “primitive” societies, or even in pre-industrial societies, human starvation was quite common.That, too, was unfortunately part of the “balance of nature.” One major reason why human populations were small. In short, I see nothing wrong with trophy hunting so long as it is not carried to excess.
WOW just WOW- if you really were ever a hunter and think hunting is no harder than shooting cows in a pasture you haven’t been hunting the same places I have.
In a perfect world maybe people would only hunt for food, but it is not a perfect world and trophy hunting and other hunting is regulated- even with the high populations of humans in most of the country- wildlife is at larger numbers than ever in popular hunting places because of game management for hunters. I have no gripe with trophy hunting or sport hunting. It is a large industry that employs many people. Truth is those that talk the talk of saving the animals don’t put their money where their mouth is in large enough numbers so without the hunting industry license fees and donations the large herds would not exist long.
Truth is when nature is allowed to take its own course overpopulation will cause horrible disease and mass die- offs and to me it is more humane to let hunters take a few.
Maybe things are done differently where you live but predators are not shot here to make sure there is plenty of trophy animals and haven’t been in my memory. We have large coyote, and bobcat, etc populations and still have large herds of antelope and deer. We have quite a few trophy and other hunters come into the area and the game they take is not even noticible. One thing we don’t have is very many people living here- so animals are not losing their habitat here- which is a serious problem in many areas. If you are really concerned about wildlife not living with nature then maybe your gripe should be with developers more than hunters.
We can agree to disagree but you will never convince me you were ever a real hunter, you just don’t savvy the whole situation enough.
Boy do I feel stupid- spending all that time posting then realizing I was just feeding a troll. I have noticed several today- No one told me today was troll day. Is DU down?
Yes wildlife is more abudant in many places due to sport/trophy based hunting efforts. So are the billions in various property damages these over populated animals cause. Everything from crops to vehicles being destroyed.
How do you know predators are not being killed to support game animals? The government agencies will not come out and admit such. Yet the evidence is perfectly clear.
A recent report in National Geographic showed that allowing wolves to reeneter areas where they had been decimated generations ago allowed the damage caused by such game management programs to be eliminated. The elk and other game species that were being protected by predator kills went back their natural patterns of migration, rather than staying in smaller areas and destroying the eco system. When the wolves came back the elk began moving and not eating too much of the fauna. When that happened other natural species also returned and the damaged areas thrived again.
Don’t take my word for it, Google the issue.
Game management is not natural and should be eliminated.
There is also the myth that hunters are responsible for all wildlife expenses. Yet when non hunters seek seats on boards that make wildlife (i.e. game) decisions they are refused.
In fact the majority of money raised by the Pittman-Roberts Act comes from non hunters. There are only 12.5 million hunters nationwide, according to the USFWS, compared to over 90 million gun owners.
The fact is that sport hunting is headed for extinction and eventually the boards will be staffed by those who care about wildlife, not sport/trophy hunting.
I know what is going on in my area game wise because I am out in the boonies all the time. Wolves don’t solve any issues with wildlife- in my area there are no issues with wildlife and we sure don’t want wolves.
We don’t have property damage from wildlife though I know some farmers have a little. No big deal though.
If you really want to know what is what with wildlife quit reading so much and get out and about with the wildlife- you will be amazed at how much you don’t know.
I don’t need google I am out where it is happening.
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