Stop Aerial Wolf Hunting in Alaska

Dear Governor Sean Parnell,
Please take a moment to read some facts about Aerial Wolf Hunting. Then we beg of you to end this carnal sport. It starts with our voices, and ends with yours.

Aerial Wolf Hunting:
Watch this informative video on the slaughter of wolves in Alaska. Be warned not only is it graphic in nature, it's heart breaking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr183lk-wQk

Why Do They Hunt Them?
Besides the cruel nature in which it's done, the main argument is that it is illegal. But as always it's not as easy as that....

In 1972 the Airborne Hunting act was enacted in Congress prohibiting the slaughter of wildlife from airborne crafts- but that did not stop Alaska. Why? Because in a guised effort to artificially boost moose and caribou populations, Alaska took advantage of a loop hole and has been sending private hunters and pilots out in administered wildlife aircraft to exterminate the wolf and bear populations that have been theorized to have significantly decreased the gaming herds.

How is it possible if it's illegal?
In the past few years Governor Sarah Palin and many other officials in these so-called "private hunters" clubs claim that because they are not opening the slaughter of Alaska%u2019s precious wildlife to the public they are within legal limits asserting that they are merely using government assigned professionals and legal wildlife aircrafts to mitigate the supposed drastic decline in their moose and caribou indigens.

Has anyone done anything about it?
Despite the efforts of the 59 percent of Alaskan residents to ban Ariel Hunting in 1996 and the 54 percent in 2000, each time Alaskan legislation over turned the ballot re-legalizing their carnal sport (PAWs Act). In 2008 enough signatures were collected to place another ballot, but it was ignored. The voices go unheard.

History
In 2000 state officials declared a crisis claiming there were only 850 moose in one game management unit,  later on that number was shown to actually be more than 3,600- but of course Alaska adopted the Ariel Wolf Hunting Program anyway.

A few springs ago Sarah Palin attempted to boost the Alaskans' willingness to aerial hunt by offering a $150 bounty on the foreleg of a wolf, but to wildlife defenders relief, due to her  vice presidential campaign in 2008, she withdrew the devil's deal, which as a chain reaction slowly rose the numbers of protests against this brutal sport.

An article was posted in a political fact checking site in 2008 that claimed wolves in Alaska kill nearly 13 moose a year per wolf, which would bring the death toll to an outrageous 143,000 deaths. It is quite clear why someone might take that statistic as a viable reason to begin wolf control, but adding in the fact that recent statistics for that year showed the moose population at only 150,000 one can see plainly that the fact check site might need to check their sources. Even adding in the births of the new moose of the year, which are born normally as an only child with a high mortality rate due to their vulnerability not only to wolves and bears but to disease and other predators as well, the population with a statistic such as that could not even begin to replenish itself. Not to mention that the annual moose population report done by the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game for 2007 shows that the wolves as a whole only killed at a rate of 8 moose per 125, a statistic that brought the death toll of moose by the teeth of the wolf to a mere 9,600.

What can be done?
Spread the word. As global organizations such as PETA and Defenders of Wildlife get the word out, more and more people protest; a number of people that even include Alaskan hunters:
Airborne hunting undermines both the concept of fair chase and the political climate for sport hunters across the country. Real hunters will vote to reclaim our integrity as outdoorsmen by banning aerial wolf hunting. Other "hunters" who are incapable of, or unwilling to, pit their wilderness skills against the instincts of their prey, should just stay home - during hunting season and on Election Day.
Ed Davis, Ester, AK

The media lies
Through the millions of protesting voices Alaska and its government continue to paint their roads red. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game%u2019s conservation website states:
Alaska's Interior, predators kill more than 80 percent of the moose and caribou that die during an average year, while humans kill less than 10 percent.

Take special note of these words: that die during the average year. This does not mean predators kill 80 percent of the entire moose and caribou population like many Pro-Ariel Hunting sites are claiming; because including the 10 percent of deaths caused by humans that would be to say that 90 percent of their population depletes each year- a bogus statistic. They are killing 80 percent out of the average number that moose that die each year, not the entire population like they'd like people to believe. This is a classic example of how politicians twist words.

Controversies within the loop hole
Kept hush to the ears of the public is the fact that not only do they hunt during the time that bears and wolves are giving birth to and raising their offspring, they often follow the injured animals to their dens and shoot their young- an illegality that holds no loop holes; yet still remains ignored. There are countless numbers of videos and essays that can be found on the web exhibiting the cruel and terrifying ways in which these poor defenseless animals are being hunted; and despite the horror people are given hackneyed reasons for why such a vital species to the Alaskan wildlife is still being hunted despite laws put in place to protect it.