Sarah Palin's Views On Aerial Hunting

Sarah Palin's view on Aerial Hunting has been masked in the term "predator management" under the guise that they need to increase the numbers of moose and caribou. The reason that this is a guise is because the predators being hunted are being hunted by private citizens that pay the state of Alaska money for this special license, and these predators are either on the "endangered" or "threatened" species lists. 

So why is this such a heated issue in the news? One reason is because this is a controversial issue that Palin spent $400,000 of state money on a campaign to have this practice stay legal. This was done by Palin before she was even announced as the Republican VP pick. Another reason this issue is heated is because Alaskan citizens have voted to ban aerial wolf hunting twice.

"In January 2006, Friends of Animals (FOA) won a Superior Court case that effectively banned the state of Alaska from issuing permits to the public for aerial wolf hunting. In response, Alaska's Board of Game hastily put together new "emergency regulations" for predator control that conveniently sidestep the court's decision by allowing the Board to issue aerial gunning permits again." 

In the year 2000 the Alaska Legislature re-legalized aerial wolf hunting by private individuals, through the current governor Tony Knowles' veto. Six months later Alaska voters in 2000 overturned the Legislature's action and restored the previous ban on aerial hunting.

The interim director at the Alaska Center for the Environment,Valerie Connor, is against the aerial hunting of animals as she believes it is not "predator management" at all:

"I think that when you take private citizens and give them permission to kill animals from an airplane with their own guns and their own equipment and then harvest the pelts from the animal, that looks like hunting to me," said Connor. 

Connor has also made clear that she and her group is not opposed to predator management but finds airborne shooting unethical and not "fair chase."

The vast majority of Wolves, Grizzlies and Wolverines killed are killed by hunters on foot, which has always been legal in Alaska with the appropriate permit. This is another reason this form of hunting is just ridiculous, and the fact that so much money was wasted on promoting aerial hunting is what has people questioning Sarah's motives.

Here is a video explaining Aerial Hunting in Alaska as just that, inhumane "HUNTING" by the privileged:

Warning, this video, although informative is relatively graphic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mu_rqmFpL8&eurl=http://gristmill.g rist.o...

More FACTS on aerial hunting:

http://www.defenders.org/resources/publications/policy_and_legislation /a...