Did Sarah Palin's 'predator control' slaughter 14 wolf cubs?

Warning, this video isn't pretty and its' pretty hard to watch.

But the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund claims that this is the result of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's predator control program in Alaska, the one that allows wolves to be tracked and shot by hunters in helicopters.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game press release survival numbers in the Southern Alaska Peninsula  (SAP) caribou herd are encouraging following the removal of 28 wolves from the calving grounds near Cold Bay.

The release reads: "Wolves from three packs were shot from a helicopter by Alaska Department of Fish & Game staff. Because many of the wolves were killed early in the calving season, wolves killed only seven, or 10.8 percent, of the radio-collared calves in the study area."

It goes on: "Biologists estimate 63% of the calves born this year survived their first two weeks of life. Typically, calf survival ranges from 50-60 percent during this period in other Alaska caribou herds that are stable or increasing." Click here to read more on the positive outcome of the incident.

But according to the DWAF, Alaskan state law prohibits the targeting of pups -- a practice known as denning. They say that's probably why Palin's officials tried to cover it up, making no mention of the brutal pup executions in the state's June 30 press release on the killings.

To date, none of the officials involved in the incident has been held accountable. The incident remains controversial but here's a news report about the pup killings.

"Gov. Palin could be just a heartbeat from the presidency," says Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the DWAF. "Do we want a vice president who champions savagery towards animals?"

Do you?

Comments

[Sean K]

This woman (Palin) is just as savage and heartless as she is uninformed and unintelligent. People have no more of a right to hunt FOR FUN (it's a lie to claim Americans, in general, hunt for any other reason) than they have a right to smash dogs on the head with sledge hammers or throw kittens at a brick wall. Killing animals for fun is not only disgusting, it is indicative of a violent, psychotic mindset.

[She's folksy]

Someone give her a coat made of meat, give her a five second head start, and let the wolves get some payback. Who let the wolves out!

[Rudy]

Sarah Palin is Barberic, incompetent and and intellectually challanged. I think this woman will top anything that Dick Chaney mught have done as VP. Killing just for the thrill of it tells you something about the killer. It tells you that you have no respect for life or mother nature, but we knew that. I would feel a lot more confertable if OJ Simpson was on the No. 2 spot of the GOP ticket then this barberic, incensitive person. Thanks Bill Mahar for your insight of a more decent society.

[Bill T]

DWAF - Get over it.

Once it was decided that predator wolves were going to be killed, does it matter if they were adults or cubs? And how did a shooter in a helicopter hit a cub in its den? If they are big enough to run with the adults, learning to hunt, they are big enough to take.

Drop the petty "Gotcha!" crap already, and get back to what is important to the Presidency and the People.

[tiks]

Palin is a extremely dangerous. All her "gotchas" and "betchas" don't mask her ruthlessness. She's a fascist.

[acgm]

There had to be a study done on the predator problem by some biologist or the department of Fish and Game outlying that there was an issue. How was an order carried out that violates Alaska state law, and how was Sarah Palin not aware of it? The possible solutions should have been outlined in the report.

Also, Rudy, wolf cubs do occasionally come out of the den to get fresh air, explore and play. Just because they were out of the den doesn't mean the cubs were grown (or else they wouldn't be considered cubs).

How can someone, Such as S. Palin be considered for any governmental position, let alone Vice President, if she can 't even follow the law, especially of where she was in charge of making and carrying out the laws?

Sarah Palin is one of our nation's predators, preying upon our people's hopes and ignorance. She is out of control. I suggest shooting her "cubs" to prevent further infestation and to protect the American people.

[Nathan]

Just makes it easier for an independent like myself to vote the other way.

[lucca2004]

Governor Sarah Palin's wildlife and environmal record is "abysmal" according to biologist Rick Steiner.

Palin not only supports aerial hunting of wolves and bears but also supports shooting bears habituated to humans (such as the grizzlies that tourists see at the Katmai National Preserve) even though the vast majority of Alaskans (even sport hunters) are opposed to this.

Additionally, under Palin, for the first time since Alaska’s statehood in 1958, it’s legal to do land-and-shoot killing of bears & their cubs.

Sarah Palin only cares about power, money and oil! We need a compassionate and morally sound person in the White House, not a callous, greedy and selfish woman like Palin. We've had eight years of Bush and Cheney and we don't need another four years of the like!

[Tree]

I live in Alaska, and will hunt for food if my garden fails, but try and leave the moose as an emergency food. Taking the strong from the herd(trophy) and gene pool from next years breeding, is the opposite of what the wolf wants (high risk). I have wolves within 20 feet of my horse at night over the last year, I simply mark my turf.
If we need to kill them to manage them, it shows how smart we are not. I ride horse, so I don't buy gas and pay for, depleting what belongs equally to coming generations.
I walk the walk. She may be my Governor, but not the kind of person I follow. Her ways were the ways of the last generation, this is this one. We need innovation, change and better management than execution.
Someone who understands, you cant get ahead of the herd by following it.
We need to change, when we see a cliff ahead, not keep going the same way.
What she is doing if its leadership, is not a direction I'm going in. I see that cliff, and turning away from that kind of mentality of destroying this world rather than learning to live correctly with it in this day and age.
Like the wolf, moose and caribou, each, is an individual.
Please dont judge all Alaskans by Sarah Palin......

[Jim ferrell]

I have read some of your posts' and I want to inform all of you that you're a bunch of far left wack jobs!
It's as if Bush, Cheney, and Palin are relishing pulling the trigger themselves.
Haven't any of you heard of controlling the environment in order for it to flourish? And what about the wolf cubs? Should we have allowed them to live and be eaten alive in the wilderness? Or should we spend millions relocating, perhaps even retraining them?

[presley, j]

If you don't live in Alaska how can you critique the methods they use to control the wolves?
This is quite a reach to blame Palin for killing the wolves.
These comments reflect typical rabid senseless comments from the democrazies.

[BenK]

READ: THEY BROKE THE LAW BY SHOOTING THE PUPS! End of story.

[Jordan]

Listen, hunting for fun is terrible, if the only pleasure in your life comes from killing something, you need help. I mean sure, some people really respect the animals they kill. But if you're out there just waiting to kill something and bring it back just to say, "Look at the size of this one!" , you deserve to be hunted. I couldn't kill any animal purposely unless I needed to. For survival, killing animals is o.k, for fun, it's wrong. What if I like to kill humans for fun?

[Keenan]

I'd like to start off by saying that I disagree 99% with Palin and McCain. They are both obviously unfit to be president, it isn't even a debate. Also the mob mentality being exhibited at their rallies is truly frightening.

I am no right-wing nut job.

Now I don't know the specifics of the Palin administration's policies on hunting. That being said, unless you live in Alaska, you have no business critiquing how they choose to manage their wildlife. I have no patience for city-folk who cry "BARBARISM! SAVAGERY!" from their concrete and steel citadels when they hear of a poor helpless animal being killed, yet have no empathy for their fellow humans who are attacked by bears, cougers, wolves, and even coyotes every year. The facts are: We are ALL part of a FOOD CHAIN. That includes the cute little animals in the woods. Wolves will eat you if they are hungry. Bears will kill you if they are having a bad day. They are dangerous but beautiful predators. If you do not give them reason to fear you, they will eat you. Ask the Grizzly Man. I would not wish his fate upon anyone.

So if you choose not to hunt, I respect your choice. Please do not tell me I am an ignorant bloodthirsty barbarian for making a different choice. I choose to exert my dominant place on the food chain. That is my evolution-given right. Your condemnations, shouted with phony moral outrage from your apartment in LA, will not change the brutal reality of nature; that we must eat, or be eaten.

[ryan]

Okay - what are the reasons behind this? This is so one sided, but I guess most BS political ads are.

[lucca 2004]

Keenan,

First of all, aerial hunting isn't "regular" hunting. These wolves and bears being hunted and killed by airplane are being barbarically killed by Sarah Palin's Administration so that wealthy out of state sports hunters have an abundant amount of moose, elk and deer to hunt when they come to Alaska and stay in expensive hotels and cabins and spend loads of money in the state. These out of state hunters aren’t hunting for food but rather for fun and sport so this has nothing to do with the “Food Chain” that you write of. The wolves and bears being killed by Palin’s Administration are being killed because they ARE part of the “natural food chain” and hunt for and eat moose, elk and deer so that they and their packs can survive in the harsh climate of Alaska’s backcountry. You should learn the “specifics” of Palin’s Policies before you comment on it.

Secondly, the “Big Bad Wolf” is a fairytale. Wolves and coyotes don’t kill humans. They kill small animals and maybe house cats and small dogs if an owner is stupid enough to let them wander in an area with these predators. Humans through history have killed tens of thousands of wolves but not the other way around. Bears and cougars have killed humans but this happens when humans encroach on the animal’s territory without using common sense (like the “Grizzly Man did). I understand that most wild animals are not “cute little animals in the woods” but I still care about them and don’t want them to be barbarically killed by sadistic hunters motivated only by their greed.

If you actually eat what you hunt I don’t have a problem with it but if it’s just for sport I do.

[nomoreclintonorbush]

You've got to be kidding me. The video "isn't pretty" and is "pretty hard to watch?" What a joke. The gun shot noises were fake. And not a single picture of a dead wolf. What exactly "isn't pretty" and "hard to watch?" Lame.

[david]

Wouldn't the cubs starve to death following the death of their mothers?
or were they old enough to fend for themselves but too young to be culled?
This article reeks of propaganda.

[nastyjack]

I can't believe people still think like this "Haven't any of you heard of controlling the environment in order for it to flourish?"

The earth's wildlife doesn't need to be controlled by us. It did just fine before humans came along and messed up the natural order of things. In nature everything happens in cycles. Rabbits get out of control, more food for coyotes, coyote population increases, rabbit population decreases, then coyote population decreases. It's the natural order of things.

It's not our job to interfere with nature. We need to learn to coexist somehow so that our involvement doesn't mess things up.

[Bob]

If she has no problem side stepping the law bush's loyal followers should all love her.

[Roger]

This video is retarded - anyone how who couldn't see this as propaganda should cull themselves in shallow grave and coved seeds, because in the end... you might actually might make a difference... as fertilizer.

[John Henry]

SARAH PALIN SHOULD BE AERIALLY HUNTED. --THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO KILL A WILD WOLF IN ALASKA. IF WOLVES HUNT MOOSE AND CARIBOU AT ALL, THEY KEEP THE HERDS HEALTHY AND STRONG BY KILLING OFF THE WEAK STRAGGLERS. WHY ISN'T SHE BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THIS? IT'S OUTRAGEOUS!!!
http://www.defendersactionfund.org/newsroom/sarah_palin.html#aerial

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION!
https://secure.defenders.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=467&autologin=true&s_einterest=C3C4&s_subsrc=C3Welcome

[jcadle]

Scaring people into making decisions (including opinions) is terrorism.

[whale_gurl]

The outrage is right on. Let's take our anger and put it to use.

Let's go out and get 3 more people to vote for Obama in RED or one the fence states.

[Bert]

Keenan,
I don't live in Alaska, but I do live in a smaller town then Sarah Palin has ever lived in. I take issue with your post though for a few reasons, the main one being that Wolves don't typically attack humans, bears do, cougars do, and coyotes do, but not typically wolves. Wolves have eaten zero people in the US since the country was founded, and only one in Canada in 200+ years.