Her deadly wolf program...

[GodSistah]

"In early 2007, Palin's administration approved an initiative to pay a $150 bounty to hunters who killed a wolf from an airplane in certain areas, hacked off the left foreleg, and brought in the appendage. Ruling that the Palin administration didn't have the authority to offer payments, a state judge quickly put a halt to them but not to the shooting of wolves from aircraft."

http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2008/09/08/sarah_palin_wolves/

~Andrea~

[Agnes]

WHAT?! :mad: Was there an excessive amount of wolves in the area? (Didn't read anything about it, but to me that's the only reason to shoot animals (though I prefer no shooting at all), to protect the rest of the fauna.

[DaveM]

The sad thing is that that will GAIN votes from the redneck sector (the GOPs major constituency, increqasingly). After all, they believe that animals in general only exist to be shot. Periodically, of course, they run out of animals and start shooting other people.

[Mimi]

Just watched a documentary tonight about wolves in Germany. YES, they are back, and hunters are going mad already... while rangers are happy about the return of the wolves. There are now four packs of wolves in the very East of Germany and the young ones leaving the pack are about to found new packs in quite a large area.

MIMI:)

[hoops]

First, understand that i am NOT comparing human life with animal life...that is for another argument. I just want to know what kind of "faith" is it that believes that God wants every child conceived to be born, yet needs man's help to keep the population of the worlds animals, and food for His people, under control? even if life were not in the issue, even if God is not considered, even if we haven't already corrupted the earth beyond repair...where the HECK do human beings get off feeling so all powerful, high and mighty that they think they can legislate nature? it hasn't worked so well yet, why do the most recent fools feel they can do a better job of it? end of blast.
peace
hoops

[Beth]

Because we don't yet know our place...

[DaveM]

Minnesota has, to my knowledge, the largest population of wolves among the 48 continental United States. A fair number of them are not too far from my home area, and debate has raged for decades. On one side you have the conservationists, who are probably responsible for wolves thriving in Minnesota in the first place, and on the other you have people who got their environmental education from "Little Red Riding Hood" and believe the creatures should be shot wholesale since "they attack our livestock" (Northern Minnesota is marginal cattle country and any demonstrated loss of livestock to wolves is compensated by the Federal government--you'd be amazed at how many sick old cows are suddenly "attacked by wolves") and "they might take a child" (there has been ONE documented wolf attack on a human being in the history of the state--and that was a rabid wolf.). There appears to be no middle ground.

I have lived near or in "wolf country" for 32 years. And I've spent a lot of that time out in the woods, most commonly on my own. I've heard wolves howling by night, seen their tracks any number of times. Only once do I believe I saw one, and on that occasion, the animal stepped out onto the trail perhaps 100 feet ahead of my, looked, wagged its tail and vanished back into the brush. The encounter did not last long enough for me to be certain whether it was a timber wolf, a coyote, or merely a big dog a very long way from home.

Timber wolves avoid people by instinct, making an effort to remain invisible (by the same token, we have a healthy population of cougars in northern Minnesota, but though there are apparently hundreds, they were a legend for decades until someone got a photo during the 1980s). It seems to me that there's plenty of room for a creature that has succeeded almost entirely in removing itself from human affairs. And perhaps a lesson in the habits of the wolf which we human beings refuse to learn.

Since even George W. Bush believes that human beings and fish can co-exist, I respectfully suggest that the same is true of human beings and wolves.