Conservationists File Lawsuit to Stop Aerial Wolf Hunt
Groups say wildlife control program is unscientific and illegal
 In our eNews earlier this month, we reported that a statewide coalition of scientists, recreationists and their supporters collected enough signatures from registered Alaskan voters to place an initiative on the 2008 ballot to end the aerial of wolves for sport. Now three conservation organizations—Defenders of Wildlife, The Alaska Wildlife Alliance and the Sierra Club—have filed a lawsuit in Superior Court seeking to stop the state from issuing aerial gunning permits.
Under Alaska's current predator control program, more than 550 wolves have already been killed by aerial gunning in the past three years. (Hunters have also taken a smaller number of bears under this program.) Now that the snow is falling in the state again, new gunning permits have been issued to hunters hoping to take home a wildlife trophy. These hunters will shoot at their helpless prey from airplanes or pursue them until they are too exhausted to run anymore, then land before firing on them point-blank.
In their lawsuit, the conservation groups charge that the state-sponsored program should be cancelled because aerial hunting is not based on sound science. In fact, the stated purpose of the plan is not wildlife conservation, but rather providing hunters with more moose and caribou to shoot, which generates revenue for the state from the sale of permits. The unsystematic method of aerial gunning allows hunters to chase and kill both male and female wolves of any age over about 10% of Alaska's landmass to meet their goal of reducing wolf populations by as much as 80% a year.
The groups also charge that the program violates state law because the Alaska Game Board illegally revised the rules to enable the issuing of permits after a state judge ruled against aerial hunting in January 2005. The court is expected to rule on the groups' injunction request within the next few weeks.
Learn more about Alaska's cruel aerial hunting program.
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