Sarah Palin: A wolf-killer in Veep's clothing.

One reason this blog was started was to inform people of the current threats to wolves. One of those threats is Sarah Palin. The Bush administration and the current vice presidential candidate may be the worst thing to happen to wolves in the 21st century. First we had Bush to deal with. This is the situation taken from an email I received from the National Recourses Defense counsel.

Last March, the Bush Administration declared the Northern Rockies' wolf population "fully recovered," then it handed off responsibility for the wolves to Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Just as we predicted, a bloodbath ensued, with 110 wolves slaughtered by state agents and hunters in as many days.

NRDC, Earthjustice and 11 other conservation groups raced to court and won an injunction that put a temporary halt to the killing until the full case could be heard. We fully expected to fight a drawn-out courtroom battle in order to win a permanent victory.

But thanks to the Bush Administration's surrender, that battle will NOT happen. Instead, the wolves of Yellowstone and the surrounding region will remain protected by federal law.

On the heels of that victory comes Palin, rifle in hand, spouting off about "predator control " like it's 1808 instead of 2008. As the governor of Alaska, Palin wanted to offer a $150 bounty to hunters who shot down a wolf from an airplane and brought in the left foreleg. It's hard to express how sickening this is. Aerial hunting has to be one of the cruelest and unsportsmanlike ways to kill an animal. These wolves are run to exhaustion and then filled with buckshot. They don't die quickly, it's not a "clean kill;" they writhe in agony before slowly bleeding out onto the snow. There is an excellent ad out by the Defenders of Wildlife that actually shows video footage of these hunts. Saying it's hard to watch would be an understatement. Palin claims to be "pro-life," but she's actually "pro-death." As an avid trophy hunter, Palin hopes to use "predator control" (an ugly euphemism for slaughter) to artificially boost moose and caribou populations for human hunters. And wolves are not the only animals on Palin's hit-list. She actually sued the Bush administration to remove endangered species status from Polar Bears. Scientist are predicting Polar Bears will be extinct in fifty years and this woman wants to declare open season on them! Keeping this woman out of office should be top priority for those who love wildlife.

God's Dog: Why the wolf matters.

"Wabam wabisca ip pit tah." ("Look! The white fangs!")

Jack London, White Fang

Jack London was one of the greatest wildlife fiction writers to explore the secret world of the wolf. His masterpiece, White Fang, is a meditation on both savagery and beauty, cruelty and love, extermination and survival. London abstains from anthropomorphisms as far as possible, attempting to portray the wolf not as human, but as a unique and individual species with motivations, struggles, triumphs and heartaches all its own. I have heard many times and from various sources that the wolf is "God's dog." I think that that is a fitting title considering that, aside from God Himself, the wolf is one of the most controversial figures in human history. Like London, I hope to promote an image of the wolf that is closer to reality than we are used to in legend, fairy tale, and modern misconception. The question remains, however, why wolves? Why do wolves matter when there is economic crisis, terrorism, racism, child abuse, natural disasters and world hunger? If all these calamities were to end, if peace and prosperity were to be achieved, what kind of world will we have left if ecosystems have collapsed, and global warming and trophy hunting has resulted in extinction of entire species? More than any other animal, the wolf represents the destructive force man has unleashed upon those creatures that he does not understand. The American West, Canada, and Alaska are the last strongholds left for the embattled wolf, the symbol of wildness. Henry David Thoreau said it most eloquently, "The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild, and what I have been preparing to say is, that IN WILDNESS IS THE PRESERVATION OF THE WORLD. Every tree sends its fibers forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind. . . . "