Letter to the Editor
Mighty hunters
Published Saturday, August 23, 2008
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To the editor:
We’re from Alaskans Helping Animals, a nonprofit animal-rights group. We’re trying to educate people on the importance of voting “yes” on Ballot Measure 2 that addresses the aerial wolf hunting issue.
To make it a fair fight, send the biologists out with pocket knives. We’re already familiar with their work as mighty hunters killing wolf puppies. We hope that other Alaskans will agree that people should not interfere with the natural ebb and flow of predator and prey populations; true hunters love nature, they don’t try to control it.
Community Discussion
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Animal rights? They have the right to be on my plate next to the mashed potatoes! Seriously, if you don't hunt or depend on moose like alot of us do here in Alaska, don't attach yourself to bleeding heart causes. Remember, these types of tactics only cause you to think with your heart and not your mind, often leading to false impressions by the voting public. I just received a notice from an animal rights group that portrayed a couple of wolves tied to an airplane wing strut and stated that this is not "Alaska". I beg to differ! I think it IS Alaska. People are part of nature and we can influence numbers of animals for our overall benefit. Pick up a gun or bow and go hunting for your food people!!!
of course we have the right to interfer with the totally random process which is nature. nature isn't concious and doesn't think or plan but we are and do. of course we can manipulate this planet for our benefit any time we want.
anytime you put a creature on the endangered species list or create a new no hunting national or state park you are manipulating and controling nature (double standard?). did you ever think that if a species is endangered it is because nature is done with that model and is trying to get rid of it? well, of course not, nature doesn't think. but if i follow your logic it does.
Vote "NO" on Measure 2.
Trap, hunt and fish Alaska, If you don't like it relocate, there are plenty of liberal tree hugging states that are receptive to your emotional based non-logic.
Scaman & Smith...
What does Wolf back strap taste like?
You probably do not eat meat. Your comments...Could you be liberal, greenies, educated in a UAF environmental buble. And by the way...As the reports of planet cooling coming in, why did Al Gore change global warming to climate change? Tell the MaMa moose it's ok that the wolf is eating the baby moose or some little kid. It's natural right!
Killing animals (wolves) for fun do not make you boys "men". how many of you "mighty providers" eat wolf????
The endangered species list is to protect certain animals from being HUNTED (or poached) to extinction, if you kill all your food what then will you have to eat? roots?
This is a free country that Alaska IS a part of, if you want unregulated hunting then YOU move to Russia or someplace where there is NO enforcement (no "liberal tree huggers" or F&G).
It's funny- Natives slaughter caribou and you people scream for "justice", F&G slaughter wolves and you SAME people applaud it.
THAT is what is called a "double standard".
It's not like this country has never known the effects of over hunting (slaughtering)- buffalo, elk, grizzly, wolves were all almost slaughtered to extinction (in several states they DID wipe ALL of them out, not including species of fish and some birds).
But then again I've seen ranches in our national forests so people can have their grocery store beef cheaper, at the expense of many innocent INDIGENOUS animals (slaughtered to protect the ranchers walking "cash cows").
Cows seem to be the most important four legged animal in this country.
heh heh : ) NATURE LAUGHS LAST
It’s statements like some of those in your letter to the editor that leave many people looking up at the sky, wondering if there is a celestial answer to the question “What are these people thinking?”
>“We hope other Alaskans will agree that people should not interfere with the natural ebb and flow of predator and prey populations….”
In your worldview, people in general, on their high and mighty pedestal, should not interfere with predator and prey populations. This reflects the simple fact that you choose to ignore: for as long as man has been on this planet, he has been both predator and prey, alternately and sometimes simultaneously hunting and being hunted. (i.e. Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you…) Until very recently hunting has been a necessity for much of the population. It still is for much of Alaska, and for much of the rest of the world. Many people could not survive without hunting. These people are inextricably embedded within “preditor and prey populations,” not a separate entity. On the other hand the worldview that allows your type of thinking leaves me wondering if you and your group really are a separate entity. Completely detached from the reality that we all share.
>“Alaskans Helping Animals.”
You call yourselves “Alaskans Helping Animals.” Again, I am at a complete loss here. Well, if they were capable, what would the caribou on the Kenai Peninsula call your group? Let me remind you that caribou are commonly eaten by wolves that you seek to protect. First, the wolf pack finds the weakest, easiest target in the herd: usually the young, aged, or injured. Then the wolves injure, incapacitate, and rip flesh off the victim creature while it is still alive. Chances are that quite a few caribou have watched as their attackers swallowed the flesh that was just ripped off their bodies. So, given this information, what would the caribou choose to call your group?
“Alaskans Helping Some Animals” seems more appropriate, but definitely too neutral. After all, some of the caribou victims in their last living moments have to watch wolves devour their bleeding flesh. No, even if we were to purge all the expletives, the name given to your group by the caribou would have to have much more emotional impact. So it is probably a very good thing that you and your group, and not the caribou get to choose the name.
“Detached Alaskans promoting an unusual mixture of emotion and a smattering of science within the context of a scrambled worldview” is not a name that you would have probably chosen, but given your letter seems both more appropriate and reasonable. If the quality of thought and communication reflected by both your worldview and choice of name is so questionable, how is it that you seek to “educate people about the importance of…” anything? Is Ballot Measure 2 based on that same quality of thought?
Wolves don't kill for sport LIKE PEOPLE DO, they don't use guns either.
How many of you "hunters" could kill a moose much less a caribou with your bare hands or even a knife?
wolves don't need guns or four-wheelers, air-boats or airplanes. they don't need tents or emergency rescue when they get lost or injured wolves don't "go home disappointed" when they don't get their kill, it's a bit more to them than a "hunting trip" to them it's LIFE.
How many of you "hunters" would starve to death this winter if you didn't get your caribou or moose rack to hang on your house?
LostAlaskan99712
Are you a vegetarian?
Wolf Puppies?
I thought that Wolves had Cubs not Puppies.
belmontrose1
You found another example. And the problem is not word choice, it’s worldview.
Let's send Alaskan's Helping Animal's and all the Wolves and Wolf puppies to the Lower 48 where they can repopulate there.
Lost,
What does hanging a trophy on the house have to do with hunting and eating an animal?
How many of you "hunters" could kill a moose much less a caribou with your bare hands or even a knife?
Lost- do you hunt? Can you do the above as a hunter?
MntMan
Face facts buddy. You cannot escape Alaskans Helping Animals any more than caribou can escape warble or bot flies.
“During July and early August, caribou can be seen violently shaking their heads, stamping their feet, and racing wildly over the tundra, for no apparent reason; they are seeking to evade warble or bot flies.” The reason the caribou are so desperate to avoid the flies is that the flies lay larva onto their bodies. The larva live as parasites, burrowing into the caribou flesh or living in their nasal and air passageways, until it is time to escape and become flies. Why this example comes to mind in this context, is beyond me. After all, Alaskans Helping Animals is helping the wolves, a creature that kills caribou in a horrible manner. The wolf does not simply and intolerably infest the caribou over an extended period of time, continuously torturing it. So in that sense the group is more humane. (Unless of course they are also promoting the existence of warble and bot flies. I am not sure, but given their logic, it is just too hard to guess.)
No, maybe I’m just thinking about warble and bot flies because they remind me of poorly thought out Ballot Measures.
When the park strip in D.C. & Central Park in NY are repopulated with wolves then I'll listen to the "out of state, out of touch" groups. It's amazing that these people who parade themselves as experts don't understand the first rule of life on earth. Life isn't fair. The biggest cruelty to animals case I know of is when the "friends of animals" camera crew let a wolf anguish in a snare so they could film it for their commercials. Alaskans protect the wildlife through management. The pro-2 groups act like the ballot measure is going to protect the bunnies & Bullwinkle from planes full of frothing hunters machine gunning them from the air. There are already laws that deter that. What they want is to remove the state's ability to manage wildlife. Not gonna happen. NO on 2.
And again - the area around Delta Junction is in its second year of hunting 900 COWS because the Local F & G board has said there are too many moose. Kill all the cows then???? Hunt hunters from the airplane because they have killed all the moose?? Even local hunting guides don't understand the 900 cow hunt. Something just doesn't add up in all this...
"natural ebb and flow of predator and prey populations"? HEY! Humans are predators! Hunting is part of the "natural ebb & flow".
EOD_Dave
I don’t know how to break the news to you Dave. While they haven’t yet reached the park strip or Central Park, wolves have already been reintroduced to Yellowstone. The fact that people will eventually die as a result is seen as irrelevant by the groups responsible.
Wildsteelhead, great comment of the naming of the group. You hit it...if the caribou were naming the group, God only knows what they would call them. Or better yet, if they could put some voodoo on the group, can you only think of what horrible voodoo it would be?? They say they are helping animals, yeah, right. I surely will defend their right to free speech, but they are so far out to lunch, it is just a shame that they convince anyone of their point of view. At least, they only recruit the weak and emotional in society to this ridiculous viewpoint. I am not an overly religious person, but I do believe in God and the Bible, and in the story of creation God put man here to have DOMINION over all the beasts the fishes and the birds of the air. Now, he might not be too happy with everything we have done, but he put us here to MANAGE animals.
ballot measure is a COMPLETE no no! In the state constitution, it says that the state has the right to regulate wild game resources to benefit alaskans. Technically if people didnt need the caribou or the moose, fine, let everything happen natually. Let the wolves prey upon all the caribou they want, eventually in areas of small big game population, the wolves would deplete the population and they would end up starving and die out. eventually, caribou and wolf population would be restored in a few hundred years naturally. But the fact of the matter is that somepeople NEED the big game creatures for food. They cant afford to wait a few hundred years for it to be retored naturally. so basiacally what i am saying is that, let the scientist and the state do their job and butt OUT, they know WAY more on it than most of you "wildlife conservationist"!!!!!!! How sad is this, im fricken 16 years old, and i look at this more logically than some of you.
akflyfisher91, Good for you!! You are an astute Alaskan! Even at 16 you have a very good understanding of our Constitution and the situation facing our game managers. Thank you for your comment!!
akflyfisher91
Yukonjohn just said it all!
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/21/wo...
Just to repeat from a letter the other day:
Okay Trista and Alaskans_'helping'_animals and Dobie:
Let's all do feed lots and pesticides and growth hormones and slaughterhouses and corporate farming in Alaska.
Will that make you happy?
Game management to feed a population is the most ecologically sound, healthful, and rational thing to do.
corinne
Your clarity of thought is astounding! Welcome to the conversation!
Akflyfisher91
I don’t want to go too far off topic here, but there is one other tidbit of history/information I’d like to offer you that might build on your current knowledge.
Alaska became a state half a century ago in the midst of an extreme financial crisis. Overfishing had depleted fish stock to the point where individual fishermen and large companies were going broke. This catastrophic event could not have happened at better time. This lucky timing is the reason the conservation ethic written into the State Constitution. Just look at California shutting down the entire salmon season this year if you want to see the alternative reality that Alaska could be facing right now.
Lucky timing may be the reason for the conservation ethic in the State Constitution, but it will be your will and clarity of thought that will be necessary to keep it there, in the face of challenges by groups like Alaskans Helping Animals.
Being a "MEATETARIAN" slants my thinking alittle. But culling certain animals for the benefit of others is not hunting: it is game management.
Extending this work to a liminated number of licensed persons that help Fish & Game state employees is not hunting. So all of you who vote for measure 2 learn what the truth is or just get over it!
Come visit us: http://alaskanshelpinganimals.blogspot.c...
I have not yet visited the website, but the letter prompting these responses seems to be a good indicator of alaskans-helping-animals positions. I am leery of visiting because whatever is happening over there, it seems to be affecting the ability to think clearly in a very negative fashion.
The problem that I have with Alaskans helping animals is more that j