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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (416755)	9/12/2008 2:37:16 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1585484

"For those who don’t know about this, the former Governor of Alaska Frank Murkowski reinstated a program where he authorized the Alaska Dept of Fish & Game to issue permits to private citizens to hunt and shoot wolves from planes and helicopters and/or chase them in planes and helicopters until they are exhausted, and then land and shoot them point blank. This included all wolves, including puppies and pregnant mothers. This barbaric program was reinstated after the Alaskan voters had it stopped back in 1996 and again in 1999. The major issue with this program is that is illegal under federal statute. The 1971 Federal Airborne Hunting Act makes this a federal crime. The Bush administration, the Dept. of Interior, and the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service are all well aware of this barbaric practice and that it’s illegal, but have done nothing to stop it. It was thought that when Gov. Murkowski was not reelected in 2006, it would be the end of this senseless and illegal program. But Sarah Palin (the new Alaskan governor) has taken over where Murkowski left off. She has issued even more permits to allow more wolves to be shot in even greater numbers in more areas. The good news is that Alaska voter have done it again. Over 57,000 Alaskans (almost twice the number needed) have signed a petition to place the issue before voters on the 2008 ballot. It is highly expected that the Alaskan voters, for the third time, will vote to end the practice in 2008, hopefully forever! Because wolf populations in Alaska have never declined to the extent they have in other states, they were never added to the endangered species list. Alaska classifies wolves as both big game animals and furbearers, which means they can be hunted and trapped. Each year, more than 1,000 wolves are trapped or hunted. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, most of these wolf-kill statistics do not include those that were not reported, which may equal or exceed those that are reported. Aerial gunning of wolves is strongly opposed by the masses because it is considered barbaric, unethical, and nearly impossible to regulate. It is the most controversial wolf control method. Wolf control advocates continue to ignore the findings of numerous scientific studies that have determined that predators rarely are the sole cause of significant or long-term declines in prey populations. The motivation behind this program is alleged to be population control of wolves in an attempt to increase the elk, moose, and caribou herds. The elk, moose, and caribou population statistics presented by the government to justify the program are drastically underestimated. This is a political issue and all stems around money. It is just another example of politics interfering with objective science." uswolfrefuge.org