Posted on 03/18/2009 1:15:31 PM PDT by jazusamo
The state has started shooting wolves from helicopters in Alaska's eastern interior hoping to turn around an unsuccessful aerial predator control program there.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The state has started shooting wolves from helicopters in Alaska's eastern interior hoping to turn around an unsuccessful aerial predator control program there.
The project has raised concerns among officials at nearby Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, where predator control is prohibited.
Department of Fish and Game workers shot and killed about 30 wolves from a helicopter Saturday in the Fortymile area east of Tok. The focus area is the Fortymile Caribou Herd's calving grounds adjacent to the national preserve.
Fish and Game spokeswoman Cathie Harms said the goal is to kill another 70 wolves before breakup. That number doesn't count wolves killed by permitted private pilot-gunner teams in fixed-wing aircraft or wolves taken by trappers and hunters.
The total goal for the area is 200 wolves, which would leave about 100 wolves. The state estimates between 290 and 328 wolves live in the region.
Preserve superintendent Greg Dudgeon said the National Park Service was notified only on Thursday about the weekend shooting.
"Our great concern is a good many of those wolves have home ranges that are centered in the preserve," he said.
~snip~
Dudgeon said the state agreed not to shoot wolves in three packs and to shoot no more than four wolves in two other packs.
Using helicopters to shoot wolves is a "desperate" action by the department "to fix a failed program," said Wade Willis, an Alaska representative for Defenders of Wildlife.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Defenders of Wildlife at it again playing to emotions and ignoring science.
Another Palin hate, hit piece.
Yep, and we’ll see many more.
Hysterical headline! Obviously there is a huge problem, and 30 wolves is not a mass slaughter. Friggin ignorant headline writer.
how in the hell did all of those wolves get into the helicoptors ?
Maybe they use big helicopters? ;-)
Absolutely. Maybe those doogooders would rather see the wolves and natives starve as the moose population (and not a few pet dogs around here) is being depleted by the increasing numbers of their four legged buddies. Maybe they’d like to pay to have the excess relocated to their backyard.
Exactly! Most of the doogooders (enviro and AR nazis) do their lobbying from the big cities and have never seen a wolf except in a zoo.
Same day I got an email from a hunter friend showing a picture of about 20 foxes that had been killed because they were devastating the turkey population. That prompted a rancher friend to say that the turkey population had exploded in his area and the turkeys were devastating the quail.
Roseann Rosannadanna was right “it's always something”.
How anyone can believe any fact in a newspaper that can’t get subject/verb agreement right is beyond me. Brain drain into Idaho?
It seems it is always something.
From what I’ve read about wolves in Alaska the activists don’t want any killed, they contend nature will balance itself. The problem as I see it is that man is competing with wolves for moose and caribou, many Alaskans depend on them for meat and wolves are decimating them in some areas, thus wildlife management.
“Shoot. Shovel. Shut Up. (Of course, if the ground is frozen, it can be difficult.)”
Here’s a slight variation on the procedure to use until the spring thaw:
Shoot
Sneak the carcass onto a liberal’s property
Shutup
From what I have read and heard, animal activist of the PETA variety, don’t want any animal killed no matter the reason. No hunting, no fishing, no eating meat of any kind. They don’t want one species thinned out to help out another species.
This last year the VP of PETA sent a letter to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream imploring them to replace cows milk with mothers milk, I kid you not. They contend that dairy cows suffer greatly and this would end some of it. I don't believe they addressed the suffering of the women to fill in for the dairy cows.
Here's another one I posted a thread on:
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