Alaska has a long history of killing wolves.  State-sponsored wolf control consisted mainly of aerial gunning, where wolves are either tracked from the air and shot by a gunner in an airplane or chased for miles and then killed at point blank range, as the terrified and exhausted animals lie on the ground.

In 1969, NBC aired a documentary entitled “Wolves and The Wolf Men” that depicted an aerial hunt of wolves in Alaska. Public outrage to the footage prompted passage of the federal Airborne Hunting Act in November 18, 1971.  The act made it a crime for any person to utilize an aircraft to shoot, attempt to shoot or harass any bird, fish or other animal. The law is subsequently amended by Public Law 92-502, approved October 28, 1972, which is commonly referred to as the Airborne Hunting Act or Shooting from Aircraft Act.

While the Airborne Hunting Act prohibits shooting animals directly from airplanes and the use of airplanes to harass wildlife, it did not prohibit land-and-shoot hunting. This practice, much more efficient than ground-based trapping, causes the number of wolf kills to escalate.

In March of 1979, despite the law, the Alaska Board of Game once again authorized wolf control in the western Yukon-Kuskokwim area. Several conservation groups filed actions in federal court that stopped all efforts until 1980, when the court ruled in favor of the state. The Department proceeded with wolf control programs from 1980 through 1982.

When Steve Cowper became governor in December of 1986, he prohibited all wolf control for the duration of his four-year term. This shifted attention to the practice of aerial land and shoot taking of wolves by members of the public, which had remained a legal method available to anyone holding a $15 trapping license or a $25 hunting license.

In 1990, two polls conducted by Alaska Wildlife Association and the Alaska Visitors Association showed that 70% of Alaskans opposed wolf control efforts.

Unfortunately, despite this vehement opposition from Alaskan citizens, in November 1992, the Board voted 6-1 to approve implementation plans for a massive five-year aerial wolf control program where wolves would be gunned down from helicopters and fixed wing aircraft in interior Alaska.

The principal purpose of the program was to increase the moose and caribou populations for the benefit of sport hunters — by reducing the wolf as a predator.  Public reaction to renewed widespread wolf control was strong. Over 100,000 letters and phone calls were received by the governor and a tourist boycott was started.

Since that time, the voters of Alaska have twice gone to the ballot box and voted against any form of wolf control.  More than 70% of Alaskan citizens voted to ban the killing of wolves, especially by aerial gunning.

But again the legislature took action to over turn the will of the public. Governor Frank Murkowski, who was elected in the fall of 2002, signed Senate Bill 155  in June 2003, that re-instated public “land and shoot” and airborne wolf killing as a part of a renewed effort to conduct more widespread wolf control over huge areas of central Alaska.

In November of 2006 Sarah Palin defeated Tony Knowles in the governor’s race. She is on record as supporting intensive management of predators and aerial gunning as a tool. She is affiliated with the Alaska Outdoors Council, which has been the major supporter of intensive predator control.  She is also a big game hunter and is strongly supported by the NRA and the hunting lobby.

On May 11, 2007 in the final days of the legislative session, Governor Sarah Palin submitted identical bills, House Bill 256 and Senate Bill 176, to the legislature.  These bills, renaming “Intensive Management” as “Active Management,”  was an attempt to avoid successful litigation by the conservation group, Defenders of Wildlife by weakening the scientific standards to be used by the Board of Game in approving control programs.  The bills would end the requirement that the Board must determine that “predation is an important cause” for a depressed prey population.  Instead, the Board would merely need to conclude that same-day airborne or aerial shooting is “conducive” to meeting a population or harvest objective.

In June of 2007, Governor Sarah Palin approved a capital budget that contained $400,000 for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to conduct a “public education campaign” on predator control. Defenders of Wildlife and others criticized the appropriation as a gross misuse of funds and a thinly veiled attempt to influence voter opinions on an upcoming ballot measure supporting wolf killing.  Numerous individuals wrote letters to the editor protesting the use of public money for propaganda on an issue that will be decided by the voters.

On the 25th of September 2007, more than 172 scientists sent a letter to Governor Palin criticizing the state’s aerial predator control program.  Governor Palin has since ignored the letters and in doing so, approved a bounty of 150$ for every wolf killed by hunters.  The only proof needed to claim the bounty is the foreleg of the dead wolf.

Palin has implemented one of the deadliest and costliest wolf extermination programs in Alaska. Under the Palin Administration, with her endorsed initiatives, 6 of 8 approved predator control programs are now being implemented in Alaska. Since 2003, 795 wolves have been killed by private aerial hunters. Alaska Department of Fish and Game staff have killed an additional 28 wolves, and 14 adult wolves were ran to exhaustion and killed by Department staff using helicopters. These plans were personally encouraged and endorsed by Governor Palin.

This past June, 14 orphaned pups were pulled from their dens and shot in the head by Wildlife officials supported by Palin.  Alaskan law dictates that it is unlawful to kill any wolf pups during the denning season. There was a massive cover up attempt by the Palin Administration and the Alaska Board of Game, to keep the killing of these pups from becoming public knowledge.  The incident however, was uncovered and once again citizens and environmental groups were outraged.

Mrs. Palin also favors de-listing endangered species like Polar bears and Grizzly bears, along with of course, the wolf.  Her main objective would be to expose these animals to a hunting season.  This would be devastating to our wildlife heritage, considering the current numbers in regard to Polar and Grizzly bears.

Don’t let the smiling face, the hockey mom propaganda, and sweet talk fool you.   For those of us that care about wildlife and the environment, Sarah Palin as Vice President would be a recurring nightmare.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 8:23 am.