Sarah Palin -- talks tough when she's killing through a scope...
... even tougher when she sends others out to do her killing for her.
This, about killing wolf pups, from Defenders of Wildlife:
"In June, after gunning down 14 adult wolves from a helicopter, officials from Governor Palin’s Department of Fish and Game rounded up 14 orphaned wolf pups and methodically shot each one in the head in clear violation of a state law.[1]
State law prohibits the targeting of pups -- a practice known as denning. Maybe that’s why Palin’s officials tried to cover it up, making no mention of the brutal pup executions in the state’s June 30th press release on the killings.[2] To date, none of the officials involved in the incident has been held accountable.
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[1] http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/jul/19/biologists-kill-wolf-pups-help-caribou-herd-popula/
[2] http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/pubs/news/2008/06-27-2008.pdf
****************************
But the thing is, since she claims hunting is an important thing to her, she's not only a vicious, morally handicapped sociopath -- she's also stupid as week-old roadkill.
------------------
Eco-lesson in brief:
When wolves hunt caribou or elk -- animals a lot larger than any one of them -- their success rate is approximately one kill out of every dozen hunts. And the ones they can get are almost always ONLY the sick, the weak, the old, and the crippled*.
What this does is strengthen the herd since it leaves the strong, the healthy, and the powerful alive to breed -- the very game animals that hunters value most highly.
When hunters are given their free-for-all under the guise of "game management" and there are not enough wolves to remove the sick from the herds, what they LEAVE is the sick, the weak, the old, and the crippled, and the herd deteriorates, ultimately fails to survive.
So if -- as is so often the case in Alaska -- if a person hunts for food, the only intelligent thing to do is what the Inuit have done for centuries, live harmoniously with the wolves and let them keep the herd healthy and edible.
Conversely, the most incredibly stupid, blood-crazed thing to do is hunt down the wolves from planes and helicopters, especially when -- as Governor Palin has done -- there is a BOUNTY for wolves killed.
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Oh -- full disclosure -- around 20+ years ago, watching Nightline with various people arguing in favor of aerial hunting of wolves, I turned to my wife and said: "Something you should know about me. If I were in the same room as those people and had a gun, I'd have absolutely no compunction about shooting every one of them." (Except Ted Koppel.)
And my wife said: "Why would you think I don't know that about you?"**
Hallelujah, I just love her so.
---------------------------
* The Wolves of Isle Royale by L. David Mech
Wolves of Minong: Isle Royale's Wild Community by Durward R. Allen
The Wolves of Isle Royale: A BrokenBalance by Rolf Peterson
Of Wolves and Men by Barry Holstun Lopez
----------------
** Not a threat, just disclosure about how I felt (and still feel). That's why I scrupulously avoid EVER getting into the same room with any of them, and scrupulously avoid owning or holding a weapon.
To be clear -- many people hunt for food.
Sociopaths hunt for sport.
Chickenshit sociopaths hunt from planes and helicopters.
And it's not illegal to pray their planes crash.
*******************************************
This, about killing wolf pups, from Defenders of Wildlife:
"In June, after gunning down 14 adult wolves from a helicopter, officials from Governor Palin’s Department of Fish and Game rounded up 14 orphaned wolf pups and methodically shot each one in the head in clear violation of a state law.[1]
State law prohibits the targeting of pups -- a practice known as denning. Maybe that’s why Palin’s officials tried to cover it up, making no mention of the brutal pup executions in the state’s June 30th press release on the killings.[2] To date, none of the officials involved in the incident has been held accountable.
------
[1] http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/jul/19/biologists-kill-wolf-pups-help-caribou-herd-popula/
[2] http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/pubs/news/2008/06-27-2008.pdf
****************************
But the thing is, since she claims hunting is an important thing to her, she's not only a vicious, morally handicapped sociopath -- she's also stupid as week-old roadkill.
------------------
Eco-lesson in brief:
When wolves hunt caribou or elk -- animals a lot larger than any one of them -- their success rate is approximately one kill out of every dozen hunts. And the ones they can get are almost always ONLY the sick, the weak, the old, and the crippled*.
What this does is strengthen the herd since it leaves the strong, the healthy, and the powerful alive to breed -- the very game animals that hunters value most highly.
When hunters are given their free-for-all under the guise of "game management" and there are not enough wolves to remove the sick from the herds, what they LEAVE is the sick, the weak, the old, and the crippled, and the herd deteriorates, ultimately fails to survive.
So if -- as is so often the case in Alaska -- if a person hunts for food, the only intelligent thing to do is what the Inuit have done for centuries, live harmoniously with the wolves and let them keep the herd healthy and edible.
Conversely, the most incredibly stupid, blood-crazed thing to do is hunt down the wolves from planes and helicopters, especially when -- as Governor Palin has done -- there is a BOUNTY for wolves killed.
---------------------
Oh -- full disclosure -- around 20+ years ago, watching Nightline with various people arguing in favor of aerial hunting of wolves, I turned to my wife and said: "Something you should know about me. If I were in the same room as those people and had a gun, I'd have absolutely no compunction about shooting every one of them." (Except Ted Koppel.)
And my wife said: "Why would you think I don't know that about you?"**
Hallelujah, I just love her so.
---------------------------
* The Wolves of Isle Royale by L. David Mech
Wolves of Minong: Isle Royale's Wild Community by Durward R. Allen
The Wolves of Isle Royale: A BrokenBalance by Rolf Peterson
Of Wolves and Men by Barry Holstun Lopez
----------------
** Not a threat, just disclosure about how I felt (and still feel). That's why I scrupulously avoid EVER getting into the same room with any of them, and scrupulously avoid owning or holding a weapon.
To be clear -- many people hunt for food.
Sociopaths hunt for sport.
Chickenshit sociopaths hunt from planes and helicopters.
And it's not illegal to pray their planes crash.
*******************************************
posted by Saintperle at
10:07 AM
