Palin’s idea of sport

In her 20 months as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has worked hard to turn it from America’s last great wild place into strip mall sprawl suburbia, like the lower 48. A key component of her effort is to get rid of predators, wolves in particular.

Palin offered a bounty for anyone engaging in aerial hunts of wolves, paying $150 for each left foreleg brought in. The Defenders of Wildlife sued to end this brutal killing, which is the opposite of sportsmanlike and which was outlawed by Congress 30 years ago. Wolves are either shot from the air or run down with airplanes until they are exhausted and then shot point blank on the ground.

“The Governor is overstepping her legal authority by offering cash payments for each wolf killed by aerial gunners,” stated Tom Banks, Defenders of Wildlife’s Alaska Associate. “That’s a bounty by anyone’s standards regardless of what they call it.”

Palin offered a bounty for anyone engaging in aerial hunts of wolves, paying $150 for each left foreleg brought in

Hoping to boost the number of wolves killed this year by permitees, Palin announced the state would pay $150 for each kill. According to an Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) news release, the bounty was instituted to “motivate permittees to redouble their efforts and to help offset the high cost of aviation fuel, ADF&G will offer cash payments to those who return biological specimens to the department… Permittees will be paid $150 when they bring in the left forelegs of wolves taken from any of several designated control areas.”

Healthy ecosystems need predators. Without them, varmit populations — rodents, usually — explode. Poison is commonly then employed to kill the varmits, taking desirable and domestic species with the rodents, sullying waterways and introducing toxins.

“Governor Palin needs to take a close look at wildlife management practice in her state and restore the use of sound science,” concludes Banks. “She said would heed the will of the public, but it’s increasingly clear she’s only listening to that segment that is willing to sacrifice Alaska’s natural heritage for the benefit of a few.”

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) introduced the Protect America’s Wildlife (PAW) Act to close a federal loophole that would eliminate Palin’s aerial hunting program, which has also been proposed by Dick Cheney’s friends for the Greater Yellowstone region. Go to the Defenders of Wildlife’s site to see if your representatives have cosponsored the bill, and to sign a petition demanding they do.