stop Aerial Wolf Hunts! last day for comment (10-11-07) -- say "NO" to THRILL KILLING!

[nashville_brook]

this was passed on to me -- i'm passing it along to you...



http://www.apgs.com/R,K.%20Wolf%20K2.jpg

Help Us End Aerial Hunting of Alaska’s Wolves

Over the past four years, Alaska’s aerial hunting program has claimed the lives of nearly 700 hundred wolves. State-permitted aerial hunters and pilots are preparing to take to the skies again, and we need you help to stop them.

go here to view a short documentary on aerial hunting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mu_rqmFpL8


________________


if you're disgusted by this practice, please take a few minutes to have your voice heard on this last day for public comment.

Thanks! Brook

___________________


3 SAMPLE LETTERS IN THIS ALERT:

1. TO: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (COMMENTS DUE 10/11/07)
2. TO: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
3. TO: Your U.S. Representative

SOURCE OF INFORMATION:

Help Us End Aerial Hunting of Alaska’s Wolves
https://secure2.convio.net/dow/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=839&s_einterest=C3C4&s_Affiliate=savewolves_&JServSessionIdr009=ed6tazojx2.app27a

Tell Congress to Protect Gray Wolves!

SIGN PETITION:
Urge Congress to End Aerial Gunning of Wolves!
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/929804505?z00m=9454085

=========================

ALL SAMPLE LETTERS:

* Sample letters are prepared to give you ample background on an issue.
Try to change some words, pare down letters, and make them your own.

* KINSHIP CIRCLE MUST REMAIN ANONYMOUS, for letter campaigns to have impact and to avoid legal problems under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). Please NEVER REFERENCE KINSHIP CIRCLE when sending comments directly to letter recipients.

=========================

SAMPLE LETTER #1: U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service

View wolf rule changes: www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/wolf/

SOURCE: www.fws.gov/news/newsreleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=F5D1AC6B-EDF8-3CBA-0547FF10C1AF38C1

All public comments must be received by October 11, 2007.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Ed Bangs, Western Gray Wolf Recovery Coordinator
585 Shepard Way * Helena, MT 59601
Ed Bangs: 406-449-5225, x204
email: EA-WolfRuleChange fws.gov, WolfRuleChange fws.gov
**Include RIN 1018-AV39 in the subject line of the message**

Thank you for soliciting public opinion about the fate of gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Please register my opposition to proposed revisions that permit states and tribes “more flexibility in managing nonessential experimental wolves.”

I strongly disapprove of the destruction of protected wolves to artificially inflate big game populations. A management scheme that could result in the slaughter of hundreds of wolves is irresponsible. The revised 10(j) rule nullifies wolf recovery gains in Wyoming and Idaho. Moreover, your proposal lets states initiate the killing before wolves are even removed from the Endangered Species List.

The mass elimination of predators always impacts an ecosystem. The USFWS Environmental Assessment fails to disprove that large-scale slaughter will hinder wolf recovery. In fact, the EA offers no scientific rationale for modifying the 10(j) rule — an indication that its primary purpose is to open hunting opportunities. This is not “wolf management,” especially when wolves have yet to attain steady numbers.

I am disgusted a government agency would authorize states to kill wolves on public lands if they are perceived as a threat to companion animals and livestock. Wolf provocation remains a rare event and certainly doesn’t warrant revision of a rule intended to preserve a species. Furthermore, private landowners ought to employ non-lethal methods to deter wolf conflicts. Fencing, carcass removal, non-lethal repellents or scare devices, in conjunction with modified animal husbandry techniques, have proven more capable than kill tactics in decreasing livestock damages.

I ask USFWS to adopt Alternative A in your Environmental Assessment and take no action on the 10(j) rule. Please take a stand for wildlife impunity and uphold the Endangered Species Act.

Sincerely,

###############################

SAMPLE LETTER #2: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin

Governor Sarah Palin
State Capitol, Juneau Office
P.O. Box 110001 * Juneau, AK 99811-0001
ph: 907-465-3500; fax [phone]
email: office_of_the_the-governor gov.state.ak.us
web email: gov.state.ak.us/govmail.php
SOURCE: www.gov.state.ak.us, people.smu.edu/rhalperi/governors.html

Dear Governor Palin,

Twice: The number of times Alaskans voted to ban aerial hunts. 35 years: The span aerial gunning has been outlawed under federal law. Almost 700 wolves: Fatalities over four years of aerial hunts. $400,000: Funds allocated to promote the state’s aerial gunning program.

Unfortunately, nobody’s buying it. Aerial hunts only jeopardize Alaska’s billion-dollar tourism industry. I will continue to boycott attractions in your state until these profoundly inhumane hunts end.

There is nothing responsible about “wildlife management” that calls for hundreds of wolves to be gunned down from low-flying aircraft. These animals are harassed to exhaustion. Pellets rain down on them. Some limp away to slowly bleed to death. Others are cornered in the snow and shot at point blank range.

Under the Federal Airborne Hunting Act, Alaska’s aerial gunning policies are illegal. Yet the state still lets private citizens track and kill wolves using low-flying aircraft and high-powered riles. No public relations campaign can convince Alaskans and the world that aerial slaughter is humane, rational, or necessary.

Aerial and land-to-shoot hunts shame the State of Alaska, prized for its breathtaking wildlife and terrain. Please permanently ban the senseless slaughter of Alaska’s wolves and bears.

Thank you,

###############################

SAMPLE LETTER #3: Your U.S. Representative

To identify your federal legislators and find contact info, try:
Congress.org: www.Congress.org
USA House of Representatives: www.house.gov
Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121

The Honorable Representative _____________________________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Representative _____________________________________,

I am a registered voter in your district who is distressed about Alaska’s aerial gunning of wildlife. Aerial marksmen have killed nearly 700 wolves over the last four years.

An aerial trophy hunter aims his assault rifle out the window of a low-flying aircraft to shoot wolves on the ground. Pellets rain down on them. Injured wolves limp away to slowly bleed to death.

A same-day airborne hunter harasses animals from the air until they are worn down. He then lands his helicopter or plane, corners exhausted and wounded animals in the snow, and shoots them at point blank range.

Clearly, aerial slaughter is not humane, rational, or necessary. Yet it may expand beyond Alaska as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service weighs a proposed rule change that would permit the slaughter of hundreds of gray wolves in Wyoming and Idaho.

I call upon you to help end these inhumane hunts. I’ve learned Representative George Miller (D-CA) has authored legislation to defend wolves from aerial gunning. Please cosponsor this imperative legislation.

Rep. Miller’s bill seals a loophole in the Federal Airborne Hunting Act (FAHA) and effectively terminates aerial gunning of wolves. In 1971, Congress enacted the FAHA to ban use of an aircraft to “attempt to shoot for the purpose of capturing or killing any bird, fish, or other animal” or to “harass any bird, fish, or other animal.”

In addition, Alaskan voters passed ballot measures in both 1996 and 2000 to ban aerial and land-to-shoot wolf hunts.

I urge you to act on behalf of your constituents, most Alaskans, and the international community — who all want this senseless slaughter to stop. Please cosponsor Rep. Miller’s legislation when introduced.

[BrklynLib at work]

1. I have sent letters and signed petitions. This is a disgusting,horrifying practice.

It is nothing short of Animal Abuse, and its practitioners should prosecuted as abusers, and sent to prison.
Only a truly sick person could enjoy this....like shooting fish in a barrel, only worse.
:mad: :grr: :nuke: :puke:

[nashville_brook]

2. or picking your pheasants and driving them out to the "range" -- Cheney-style

[BrklynLib at work]

3. So in character for chickenhawks....Only shoot creatures that have no chance whatsoever of fighting

back or escaping..

[nashville_brook]

4. well, hunting is "hard work." they get tired.

ugh.

[Richard D]

5. Signed, K&R

[nashville_brook]

7. thank you! since it's the last day lets keep this kicked...

for visibility.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Been fighting this issue a long time.

[nashville_brook]

8. seems like "the price of nature" is going to be "eternal vigilance."

[truebrit71]

12. Me too...glad to see others feel as passionately about it..

k&r

Edit: Just e-mailed my (r) rep about this directly...

[nashville_brook]

13. thank you truebrit!

[nashville_brook]

9. kick for added pics...

[nashville_brook]

10. ...

[nashville_brook]

11. another proud pic >>>>>>

[Kajsa]

14. I've been fighting this for some time, too.

I'm glad to sign any petition opposing this barbaric practice.

I contributed to The Defenders of Wildlife
and NRDC to get their ad on the air.
I'm glad a number of good organizations
are involved with this.

Another K&R for something I feel very strongly about.

:kick:

[truebrit71]

15. Don't forget to cross post this in the other relevant forums...

...let's get maximum exposure for the wolves!!

[nashville_brook]

16. thank you! had not thought of that!

[nam78_two]

17. K&R

Beautiful creatures-I have donated to Defenders of Wildlife for this very cause today :(.

[nashville_brook]

18. i'm a florida coast person... i had not heard about this issue until today.

the grey wolf is about as foreign to me as the manatee must be to someone from Nova Scotia. but, the issue is clear. the action is easy. and the alternative is unacceptable.

[leftchick]

19. wtf is wrong with these fucking assholes?

god I hate people like this. :puke:

Thank you for the links.

[nashville_brook]

23. i "get them." i worked for assholes like this -- and they are every bit the jerks

you imagine.

my profession is advertising/marketing, and, other than golf, one of the dude-centric activities that the "alphas" partake in is trophy hunting. these are men with inferiority complexes coming out the wazoo. they have just enough power to know that they really don't have any power at all.

now, the sport hunters i knew were NOT into this level of thrill kill (we're talking caged pheasants, mostly) -- so, i'm kicking it up a few hundred notches to get my brain around what sort of "man" would need this kind of kick.

[leftchick]

27. these are no men I would ever want to meet

they disgust me beyond belief. My grandmother told me forty years ago, you can tell a lot about a man by the way he treats animals. Isn't that the truth.

I sent my petitions. Thank you!

[AX10]

20. Hunters are a balless bunch.

They don't have the cajones to go up to a wolf (too "risky") and shoot it so they do it from the safety of a plane.
:puke:

[nashville_brook]

22. i don't have a major problem with hunting for food -- just hunt fair. need what you kill.

that's a just an abstract opinion. i've never hunted. shot a gun maybe a total of 3 times. it's just not my thing.

i wouldn't ever argue that all hunting should all be banned -- this is a clear case of a kind of practice that needs to GO. this isn't subsistence hunting. it's trophy hunting -- and where's the "victory?" they've worn the animal out chasing it in a plane for hours. this kind of hunt shouldn't be sanctioned under any circumstances.

[AX10]

29. I never said that. I said that they are weak because they...

would not dare go up to a wolf to shoot it, but doing it from a plane. Reminds of Montgomery of Mongomery/Gentry :puke: who had a bear held in capitivity so that he could "hunt" it. :eyes:

[nashville_brook]

30. oh -- i know -- sorry! just riffing.

didn't mean to suggest that.

[Greylyn58]

21. K&R

Thanks for the beautiful wolf picture. It just became my new wallpaper. These beautiful creatures deserve better than to be hunted by a bunch of aerial faux Rambos.

Disgusting people!! :grr:

Kicking for the wolves and for my own boy.

[nashville_brook]

25. that is one beautiful golden! here's my canines...

very un-wolf-y.

[Greylyn58]

31. Thanks...

You have a couple of beauties too. Are they Whippits?

[nashville_brook]

35. italian greyhounds, although

there's some scuttlebutt that my boy Trouble (on the right) is an imposter -- he's a rescue and 3 out of 4 vets think he's a giant iggie. one vet thinks he's a tiny whippet. i think he's a reincarnated English Gentleman. No one listens to me.

[lazyriver]

24. Done and sent to friends.

[flvegan]

26. Done, K&R

[Blue_In_AK]

28. Alaskans have voted TWICE to outlaw aerial wolf hunts

but our Game Board (and now the current governor) have overrode our wishes. I'm not sure if Outside pressure on the "kill anything that moves" gang up here will have any effect, but please keep trying.

ed. I guess I should note, in fairness, that the ostensible reason for the wolf kills is to boost the moose and caribou populations for the subsistence hunters, but my response to that is that the wolves, the moose and the Native hunters co-existed just fine with no "game management" for millennia.

[Kajsa]

33. Thanks for the info. Blue In AK.

We will keep trying.

Hopefully, our efforts will override the Game Board.

[KOBUK]

32. I have been a member of Defenders for years !

This cowardly killing makes me question my fellow man and physically sick !:puke:

[Kajsa]

34. Defenders link, here.-Richardson suspends NM's involvement in

wolf hunting.

Heck yeah I'm giving him credit for this.

http://tinyurl.com/2lv3l3

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson recently suspended his state’s involvement in lethal control of the last remaining 58 southwest wolves. Please take a moment to thank him for standing up for one of America’s most imperiled animals.

[aikoaiko]

36. Are you against hunting wolves or the aerial hunting of wolves?

:shrug: