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The Palin-Judd battle heats up

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The now very public battle between Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund escalates with statements flying out of both camps faster than wolves on prey.

After a video starring Ashley Judd decrying Palin for aerial wolf hunting ripped through the blogosphere like buckshot, Palin’s official website shot back:

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Shame on the Defenders of Wildlife for twisting the truth in an effort to raise funds from innocent and hard-pressed Americans struggling with these rough economic times.

In response to Palin’s statement, the president of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, Rodger Schlickeisen, issued the following statement:

As we’ve seen before, what you often get in response from Governor Palin when she is challenged is not a rational defense of what she’s doing, but rather name calling and a very transparent attempt at spin control. But then again, since there is no defense for her aerial wolf slaughter program, it may be that she feels there really isn’t much else she can do.

Governor Palin speaks of ‘science’ supporting her aerial killing program, but in spite of numerous requests, they have never produced anything even resembling reasonable scientific justification. Her state agencies have not carefully monitored predator populations and have not even provided evidence that the aerial killing is accomplishing their own stated objectives. Literally hundreds of wildlife scientists have repeatedly condemned her program and she has not once provided any evidence to refute their charges that what she is doing is unscientific.

And if the Governor is so concerned about making sure Alaskans living at the margin have enough to eat, as her statement claims, why then does she force Alaska subsistence hunters to compete with other resident and out-of-state hunters for the supposedly scarce meat in the killing areas? Also, why has she consistently opposed adoption of ‘rural preference’, which would give subsistence hunters priority access to moose and caribou in these areas?

Deception and deflection are all that that Governor Palin has ever offered in place of justification for her aerial killing program. By calling us ‘extremists’ she is suggesting that our opposition to her policies and actions is out of step with the way the majority of Americans view her brutal, unethical wildlife slaughter. But it is she who is the extremist in this case. And she knows it.

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Whether you support Palin or the Action Fund, one thing’s for sure: two packs have formed, and both are howling at the top of their lungs.

-- Graham McCann

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