Palin wolf killer?

Unknown

[Eleutheria5]

Little Red-state Riding Hood can rest easy tonight.

[eyedigress]

Keep Going....

[Mojave]

Maybe she can do something about the garbage and pet eating coyotes in my area.

[oldfart]

Hunting wolves is nothing like deer hunting. Wolves do everything they can to stay away from humans, preferring to hunt along creek-beds for small animals such as rabbits. In the spring, during moose calving season, they kill a lot of newborn calves, homing in on them by the scent of the blood. Since wolves reproduce more quickly than moose it doesn’t take long for them to seriously deplete the moose population in a given area.

Wolf hunting is done with a light plane during the winter. The pilot flies low enough so a passenger (gunner) can shoot the animals with a shotgun. Once the wolf is down, the plane lands on a nearby frozen stream-bed and the wolf carcass is retreived on foot. The bounty is paid for the front foot and the hunter can sell the pelt to a fur dealer.

Considering the high price of fuel for the plane and the fact that the plane has to have one door totally removed, allowing the sub-zero wind to blow into the cockpit, it’s no picnic and there’s always the danger of clipping a tree with a wing-tip. Now THAT could ruin your whole day.

[Eleutheria5]

Gee, my heart goes out to those immense dumpster raiders with the claws and teeth. Dick Cheney’s making them ride ice chunks out to sea and jump off and swim back—NO! I forgot! Alaska is melting! It’s all Bush’s fault.

[flyfree]

I find aerial hunting barbaric (see it on youtube) and believe there has to be a better way.

If you ever can kill an animal quickly without them suffering for long periods of time, that is always the best way. If you can do that by air, great.

I don't see any problem with what Palin did. Wolf packs in the wrong areas can be a lot of trouble and hurt the balance as much as paving over an area and creating sub-divisions. Wolves may be nice companions in a domesticated animal shelter, but in the wild they are predators. When you get a chance, maybe you should go back to Alaska and live there for a while. Alaska isn't Colorado. And Colorado wouldn't have wolves running wild anywhere near populated regions.

[185JHP]

I visited a friend in Europe who bought a wolf pelt in the Soviet Union. It was really beautiful and after thinking about it a while I really wanted one. So I asked a guy at a fur table at a gun show if he could get me a wolf pelt. He said “No. It’s legal to hunt them in Alaska but they see and hear so well you can’t get close enough to shoot them.” I like this news. “The times they are achangin’.”

[eyedigress]

May I ask your experience on these issues? For a reference, in 1973 I showed wolf skins to my classmates for show and tell. Barbaric?

[Domandred]

Bounties are often paid for predator deprecation hunts the hunt quota to keep predator population counts down is not met. Nothing unusual at all in large hunting States. Idaho for example used to pay bounties for Coyote tails.

Will only be an issue for anti-hunting peta people that never would have voted Palin...er I mean McCain...anyways.

[SeaWolf]

Wolves are a problem up here, the have decimated the moose population in areas, are taking family pets and stalking women and children out for a stroll on a sunny winters day (look it up. Eagle River AK, winter of 2007 - 2008. There are too many wolves, too few moose.

We should raise the bounty maybe we could get the wolf population back into balance faster.

[proudtobeanamerican1]

And the article today said that her town is an up and coming railroad town! My hubby’s career! I’m ready to pack up and move too.

[Steve Van Doorn]

”Palin announced the state would pay $150 for each kill.”

Don’t do that please.

The previous governor started the program, you are implying she started the program.

In 2003, Governor Murkowski opened the door for aerial wolf hunting, which he called the Predator Control Program. (they can collect $150 per wolf bounty)

Wolves are hard on the other wildlife. I don’t have a problem keeping their numbers down.

[quiet_reverie]

I appreciate the insight. I’m wanting to be informed on this and not just react emotionally. I enthusiastically support Palin but discussing this wolf/bounty issue with friends who are animal lovers can be tricky and I want to have my facts right.

[eyedigress]

They kill everything and may have gotten our Husky back in 1963. His name was Bear. I’ll shoot a wolf on sight.

[quiet_reverie]

I have no experience and little insight into this issue, which is why I posted here - for opinions and information. I’m just wanting info to share with the friend who sent me the email about this issue. Apparently that email has been making the grapevine and people, republicans too, are reacting emotionally to it.

[piasa]

Liberals love wolves because they look like doggies and they are “social,” in a communist sort of way. Wolves automatically regurgitate food when little wolves beg, like Big Government. Female wolves can be pack leaders if they are big husky bitches. There is an elite alpha class in wolf society that is allowed to breed while all others are not- lesser pack members end up raising the elite wolf’s pups. Wolves “cooperate” in mobbing and bringing down the innocent, and often begin feeding before killing their prey, just like liberals. Like liberals, wolves love sticking their noses in other animals’ business, and even in other wolves’ rear ends. Like liberals, they usually don’t do well on their own and need a pack with a big boss to tell them what to do because they are not impressive enough to intimidate others by themselves. They rudely howl in the late hours and wake up the neighbors.

So, even though liberals cannot bear to think about waterboarding a terrorist, they have no problem with wolves eating the organs out of a living victim. Even though libs advocate killing human babies because they believe in human population control, the thought of killing predators like wolves to keep their population in check enrages them.

[eyedigress]

Wolves are a menace and predator in AK. PEOPLE come first. Teach them that. Nobody wants to exterminate anything but when a predator population gets large it kills the less dominant. You have to thin the packs.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Are your animal lover friends aware that Colorado has a mountain lion hunting season? Why aren’t they upset over that?

[flyfree]

I enthusiastically support Palin but discussing this wolf/bounty issue with friends who are animal lovers can be tricky and I want to have my facts right.

You can be an animal lover and still want the wolf population down. If the wolf population is decimating the moose population then it would be best to keep the predator's population down and allow the non-predator to survive. It really has nothing to do with loving or hating animals. Most hunters I know really love animals and nature.

[caveat emptor]

I just fear that this could harm Palin

I doubt that I'm more informed than you unless you are unplugged from from American society and don't read much on FR.

I've been a vegetarian for almost 10 years; dropped meat in my early 60s on health, not ethical, grounds. But as soon as I stopped eating meat I began coming to view animals in a different light.

I also have a wolf-X, a bit more than half wolf as near as I can tell from his parentage. He's been with me for 14 years since he was 8 weeks old. He's not much like a dog, and I've come to see wolves in a different light since acquiring him.

There are wolves and cougars in my area - both have been seen very close to my house - and I wouldn't hesitate to shoot either if they threatened my family or my dog.

That said, I would be surprised if this hurt Palin. Doesn't bother me at all - she's like just about everybody else, including me when there's a threat.