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Terrible news from Alaska.
The anti-conservation Board of Game has just voted to allow up to 900 wolves to be killed by the barbaric practice of aerial gunning. This is six times as many as were killed last winter.
Lisa & Mike Husar/ Team Husar
Easy targets against fallen snow, wolves can be gunned down from airplanes or chased to exhaustion, then shot at point blank range.
We're counting on your support to help stop the aerial killing of wolves in Alaska. Please take two actions now:
First, call Governor Murkowski's office at (907) 465-3500 to express your outrage.
Then, make a tax-deductible emergency contribution to our Campaign to Save Alaska's Wolves. We need to raise $25,000 in the next 72 hours. Your donation will be used to raise media awareness, mobilize grassroots pressure and take legal action to stop the savage killing.
Time is of the essence. So, please don't delay. Call Governor Murkowski's office and make an emergency contribution to Defenders today.
Together we can stop the carnage.
Thanks for caring,
Steven DelVecchio
V.P. for Membership
P.S. If you prefer, you can mail your check to: Alaska Wolf Campaign, Defenders of Wildlife, 1130 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Thank you.
What on earth have these wolves done against the people in Alaska? Do I see evidence of attacks on humans from these wolves? No.
I can understand a dog being destroyed if it attacks a human, but these wolves have done nothing wrong. Humans think that they can do what ever the heck they like, it's like they rule the world, they see a poor defencless animal they want to rid of it and say "I put it out of it's misery", what kind of excuse is THAT? It's hardly anything.
Wolves are gorgeous creatures living in their normal habitat, they have been seen by natives as figures of nature for thousands of years (correct me if I've gone wrong). Wolves are the kind that like to be alone, to live happily, yet it's sickos with guns who think they're tougher than everyone that spoil it all for them, and that is really bad.
Killing 900 wolves is just too much, god if I saw one of the hunters, I wouldn't mind pushing him into a ditch right now, this is an outrage. Killing 900 just for fun does not make anyone a man, you're a real man if you help to protect them. I'm either talking rubbish or I'm somehow distracted and not knowing what I'm saying, but I am very angry.
I'm only speaking once, I've shared my oppinion and I've had my say.
This stuff like this that makes me ashamed to be human...
</rant>
I support hunters, they are doing nothing wrong, the government is. It is the government in Alaska allowing this to happen, and it needs to be stopped. If you are going to hunt, hunt like everyone else has to, sit and wait, and work for it. Shooting from a plane is wrong and this practice should be stopped. Wolf hunting should be ruduced if not stopped all together, and only the government can stop giving out licences.
I am a biologist, and I am well aware of predator/prey relationships. There is always a balance, an oscilation between these two, an arms race. The prey increases, predator increases...prey is lowered, so predators lower, this way the prey can get back on their feet and breed again starting the process all over again, basic ecology.
For years I have been working with wolf hybrids, my time, money, and care. I love them. They are not like dogs at all, but wolves, and as I know from my personal closeness with all of them, they are all different, just like our domesticated dogs (dogs evolved from wolves afterall and are all members of the canid family). After every succesful hunt, I bring the carcass, or what is left of it, of the deer I killed for the wolves to eat. I play with a pure artic wolf in the house (who was taken from her mom at 2 weeks old becasue the mother contracted distemper in the wild), i helped raise her when she was little. I would give the more skidish wolves deer bits from my hand, slowly gaining ther trust and soon we were friends (two 98% wolves from canada, hated people, I can pet them now and sit in the enclosure with them now). I know wolves, probably more so than most of you, or at least probably more on a personal level than most of you. Have any of you bottle fed a four week old pup? Played with a pack of 6 large grey wolves? Had a pure artic wolf play with your shoes and sit on your lap?
I am sorry if anyone got the wrong impression of me or my views. I am all for "save the animals" and "stop the killing" but it really angered me when people were just degrading hunters for the fact that they were hunters. It was no better than saying all black people are drug adicts and scum, all hispanics are stupid migrant workers, all hunters are not heartless bastards. I don't feel I "deserve to die" or to "burn in hell" and it hurt me that everyone seemed to hate me so much, not after all i have done to try and help and save the environment and the animals that live there. I just want to conclude that I by no means want to hurt wolves or any other animal for that matter, especially not in the method described in the article, there is no morals in that, no honor, no sport, no need.
You might argue that humans are doing the same, after all, no one is worried about all the deer, cows, whatever that are killed every year.
But being chased by a wolf pack allows the chance of escape - many hunts go unsuccessful as the prey escape because they're too fast, strong etc. This helps maintain the survival of the prey species as a whole - the weak and sick are killed, the strong can survive to breed and create stronger offspring.
Gunning down wolves from a plane offers no chance of survival - no wolf can out run a bullet. The wolves will probably be killed indiscriminatly, meaning no natural selection will take place. In fact, the stronger, healthier wolves are more likely to be shot as they are seen to pose a greater 'threat'. This means that, as a species, the wolves will become crippled, with a smaller gene pool and no healthy individuals to bring food to the weaker ones like the pups or injured packmates.
To wrap up, I'm gonna tell you about something I learnt in Biology:
Lets say there is a hypothetical island with a small group of an extremely rare deer species. To save this rare species from extinction, humans came and shot all the wolves on the island. The deer now have no natural predators on this island.
The deers will undergo what is know as a 'population boom' - their numbers will increase exponentially. As they now have no predators, they will only die of old age. The deer keep increasing in number.
As the deer population increases, food will become short, space will run out and fight will break out repeatedly. Disease will also occur in epidemics due to the crowded space and the large numbers. The deer will undergo a 'population crash'. As in, a large number will die extremely rapidly, leaving a small number of individuals alive (often smaller then the starting number).
Getting rid of a predator will only increase prey numbers in the short term. In the long term, it is a disaster.
(And I'm not reading all the comments Snow's journal has created so if anyone else has already said this then I apologise. )
:It is all fun and game's till someone lose a weiner:
Do any of you people realize that wolves used to be all over USA? It's because of hunting for sport and the hate for wolves that their numbers are so small now. In actuallity, they should still be considered an endangered species. We've shoved and chased them into the northern areas, and now there are NO wolves in the southern/middle area of USA. It makes me cry knowing I will probably never see a wild wolf in my lifetime, just because I live in Florida... and to think they actually used to live here. And now they're approving more destruction. It makes me sick... I'll see if anyone in my school cares to donate to this fund.