Seeking to provide hunters with more moose and caribou to shoot, state game agencies have implemented a cruel Predator Control Implementation Plan that aims to slash wolf populations in targeted areas. The program condones the use of airplanes, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, boats and baiting for the eradication of wolves in zones that the Alaska Board of Game and Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game consider prime hunting grounds. These unsystematic methods allow hunters to chase and kill both male and female wolves of any age on state land to meet their goal of reducing wolf populations by as much as 80% a year so that people from urban areas and the lower 48 states can have more living targets to shoot at. The plan has already been in effect for three years, during which time aerial gunners have slain 564 wolves, all of whom have faced horrors beyond the pale of traditional hunting methods.
Using airplanes and other vehicles to "hunt" wolves introduces exceptional cruelty into the management of wolf populations. Pursuing and harassing animals from airplanes and then landing to shoot them when they become too exhausted to run anymore cannot be considered an acceptable form of wildlife regulation. Eyewitness reports of wolves vomiting while literally running for their lives illustrate the inherent savagery of aerial gunning. Ethologically, the indiscriminate killing of females and pups is especially hard on the complex social structure of wolf packs, as each individual's survival in the harsh Alaskan outback is highly dependent on group cooperation.
Concerned for the animals and wanting to preserve the delicate ecological balance in their state, Alaskans have already voted twice (in 1996 and 2000) to ban aerial hunting of wolves. Yet the Alaska Legislature overturned public consensus by ratifying a law that authorizes the state to issue aerial gunning permits. Governor Murkowski backs the legislative override, stating, "We've got a state to manage and a game population to manage, and we've got to do it not on a basis of emotion but on a basis of sound science." However, the plan's proponents have yet to present credible evidence that killing wolves is necessary to increase moose and caribou populations. In addition, the "sound science" to which Murkowski refers is specious to begin with, as it is used not in the service of wildlife conservation but to gratify human hunters who financially subsidize state game agencies by purchasing hunting permits. In this case, official greed and special interests have won out over responsible environmental management.
Fortymile Caribou Range
One area known as the Fortymile Caribou Range is currently managed using non-lethal methods that include sterilizing 15 pairs of breeding wolves and relocating over 100 more, as well as intensive lethal snaring. While IDA is strongly opposed to any lethal predator control techniques, the combination of these methods has succeeded in increasing the caribou population from 23,000 to 43,000 between 1993 and 2003. Since then, however, the population has fluctuated between 41,000 and 43,000. "The population in the last couple of years seems to have plateaued," said Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game wildlife biologist Jeff Gross. Retired state biologist Bud Burris offers one explanation for this. "Environmental conditions are a major influence on caribou," he has stated. "Dry summer conditions in the past two years have resulted in lower pregnancy rates and limited herd growth." In contrast, Cathie Harms with the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game has said she's "relatively confident that the increased mortality of caribou is due to predation." Given existing environmental conditions, it may be that Fortymile is already supporting as many caribou as possible. Nevertheless, state game officials hope to raise the number of caribou in Alaska to as many as 100,000 animals.
Despite the leveling off of caribou at Fortymile, trapping and snaring of wolves has intensified in this high-profile area that is easily accessible by roads. The sad fact is that it's easier and far less costly for the state to allow hunters to kill wolves than to capture, sterilize and release the animals back into the wild. Currently, hunters are allowed to kill up to 850 Fortymile caribou every year, but state officials would like to increase the number to 1,000 - 15,000 kills per annum. To provide enough caribou for hunters without decimating the population, state officials want to step up their lethal predator control efforts. About 225 wolves currently live in the range, but officials intend to have no more than 50 wolves living there at any given time. They claim that drastically reducing natural predatory checks would allow caribou to increase their numbers and thus satisfy the demand of hunters.
Controversy and Debate
Fortunately, U.S. law prevents Alaska from implementing its predator control program on federally-owned land, prompting complaints from the Alaska Board of Game to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) about the federal government's restrictions on aerial gunning and other inhumane methods of wildlife management. Recognizing the situation's far-reaching implications for federal conservation policy, the USFWS has so far refused to ease legal restrictions. Gary Edwards, a high-ranking USFWS official, does not anticipate the federal government allowing predator control on a national wildlife refuge in Alaska any time in the foreseeable future. "Once we go down the predator control route, that's something that's going to be discussed on a national level," he has stated. Portions of Fortymile and several other prime hunting territories are owned by the federal government, and will therefore remain protected from aerial hunting barring an amendment in national predator control policy. As it now stands, the choice to implement such a change would be up to decision makers in the nation's Capital, not the state of Alaska.
The Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game held a three-day summit in Anchorage from May 12th - 14th during which they chose to further intensify their predator control program, which is already the state’s most expansive wildlife eradication effort in over three decades. The board voted to extend the Wolf Control Program for another five years and expand it to cover more of the Fortymile range. They also nearly tripled the amount of land allocated to predator control in one area near the Canadian border. The expansion leaves about 9% of Alaska’s total landmass open to intensive predator control.
The board also approved updates to existing predator control programs with no significant changes and eased restrictions on bear hunting. Hunters are now allowed to hunt on the same day that they have been flying, and bait black bears with food and then shoot them upon landing, all without a special permit such as the kind required to hunt wolves from airplanes. The board also designated a new area for brown bear reduction, and added 1,250 square miles to an existing range. Both brown and black bears have been officially reclassified as furbearing animals, allowing hunters to shoot or trap them and sell their skins which will help offset their travel expenses. Perhaps the only good news for the animals in all this is that the board decided not to allow hunters to catch bears using snare traps.
The Alaska Board of Game had originally postponed ruling on these matters to allow Dept. of Fish & Game officials more time for gathering biological evidence to defend their plan in court. During the Anchorage meeting, they also changed technical regulations to protect themselves from legal action. This is not the first time that board officials have abused their political power in defiance of the public’s will to appease hunters. However, as long as Alaska continues to slaughter wolves and bears in deference to big game killers, IDA and other animal advocacy groups will persist in challenging the legality of the state’s predator control programs.
The Solution: Boycott Alaskan Tourism
IDA has joined forces with Friends of Animals (FOA) to urge people all over the world to boycott travel to Alaska until the state ends its intensive and lethal wolf eradication program. FOA's tourism boycotts have been very effective in past campaigns, and in the 1990s were crucial to stopping the aerial gunning of wolves in the first place. The group was only recently forced to renew the boycott after the Board of Game once again started issuing permits for the slaughter. In January 2006, FOA filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against the Board for violating their own rules and regulations, and the judge ordered them to stop issuing permits.
At an emergency meeting after the ruling, the Board of Game betrayed the animals and mocked the rule of law by inventing new rules that conveniently give those in power the authority to issue aerial gunning permits again. In addition to rejecting and invalidating the decision of a legal court of law, the Board decided it would be best not to tell the public about the plan or accept comments on their wolf eradication program.
IDA and FOA are determined to fight Alaska's cruel predator control policies by bringing public pressure to bear on the state officials who are making destructive and anti-democratic decisions that needlessly cause animals excruciating pain and ultimately cost them their lives. You can help by refusing to finance state-sponsored violence against innocent animals. Please let Governor Murkowski know that you will boycott Alaska's lucrative tourism industry and urge your friends and family to do the same until the state implements humane, non-lethal methods of controlling predators.
If you haven’t already, please Take Action Now
For more information, please contact:
Melissa Gonzalez
Campaign Program Coordinator
Melissa@idausa.org
415.448.0078
