**UPDATED/REVISED**
As most of us know by now, Sen. John McCain has selected Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as the vice presidential candidate for the Republican ticket. Many have asked us what this means for wolves. Great question. Let's take a look at her track record on matters regarding wolves.
1. Palin offered a $150 bounty for wolves to entice hunters to kill more wolves in certain parts of Alaska, with hunters having to present a wolf's foreleg to collect the bounty. The state insisted it was not a bounty, but the judge ruled that it was and ordered it to stop.
2. She actively opposed a ballot measure campaign seeking to end the aerial hunting of wolves by private hunters and approved a $400,000 state-funded campaign aimed at swaying people's votes on the issue. She exploits the loophole in the Airborne Hunting Act (passed in 1972) against aerial gunning (which the PAW Act is aimed to close once and for all).
3. She also introduced legislation to make it easier to kill wolves and bears and which would have also removed the aerial hunting initiative from the ballot and block the ability of citizens to vote on the issue. Instead of respecting the will of the people of Alaska -- who have twice voted to restrict aerial gunning of wolves -- or listening to the concerns of scientists and conservationists, Governor Palin instead introduced a bill that would eliminate the few remaining standards governing predator control in Alaska. When Alaskans voted to allow it, many claimed that the wording was confusing, and many thought they were voting to ban it once again.
4. In June, her Dept. of Fish and Game pulled 14 wolf cubs from their den and shot them in the head after gunning down 14 adults, including their mothers, from a helicopter. According to state wildlife policy, the fish and game biologists were required to look for a home for the orphaned cubs. Officials at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage said they were never contacted, even though they would have taken in and sought permanent homes for the cubs.
Now, the bigger question is why this woman is so…..well, anti wolf. It's actually quite simple. Her husband works for BP oil, and her personal agenda involves hunting, trapping, and fishing. She supports killing wolves because the powerful Alaskan commercial hunting industry wants to nearly eliminate nature's predators in order to inflate moose and caribou numbers to cater to wealthy out of state trophy hunters.
It is important to note that trophy hunters kill the biggest, strongest and healthiest of a species, thereby weakening the gene pool. Wolves are an integral part of many ecosystems, and mankind's disruption of those systems lead to overpopulation, overgrazing, and epidemics of disease with no predators to cull the sick and old.
It is apparent that her decisions are more personal then political, as the numbers for claiming "profit" just don't add up.
According the the US Fish & Wildlife Service's 2006 survey of outdoor recreation, wildlife watchers outnumber those who went fishing or hunting in Alaska. For every three Alaskan residents that go hunting or fishing, four go watch wildlife. Most of them would like to see wolves. When you include non residents, the ratio rises. Even in Alaska, only about 11% of the population hunts anymore.
The argument to kill wolves to support hunting is that hunters spend more money. But of $1.3 billion spent in Alaska on enjoying the outdoors, only $125 million was spent on hunting and fishing. That compares to $51 million spent fishing and $581 million spent to watch wildlife. Nationwide wildlife watchers outnumbered hunters $71 million to $12.5 million, and outspent them $45.7 billion to $22.9 billion