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To the horror of compassionate people everywhere, the Trump administration has overturned previously banned hunting practices allowing the merciless massacre of unsuspecting bears and wolves in Alaska to begin. Hunters are now able to enter the dens of hibernating mother bears and bear cubs as well as mother wolves and wolf pups to violently kill them in cold blood. Please urge Joe Biden, 2020 candidate for President of the United States, to pledge to protect innocent mothers and their babies if elected!

The Trump administration’s new rule overturns previously enacted hunting bans which were put into place by the Obama administration in 2015 to prohibit highly controversial and undeniably cruel hunting practices in Alaska’s national parks. The rule took effect on July 9 and will leave the “management” of Alaska’s wild animals to the state rather than the federal government.

Under this new rule, the following unimaginably brutal practices are allowed to destroy families living on more than 20 million acres of national preserves in Alaska:

• baiting brown and black bears with human food
• hunting hibernating mother bears and cubs in their dens using artificial light
• killing wolves and coyotes in their dens during the denning season (between May 1 and August 9) when mothers wean their young
• using dogs to hunt black bears
• hunting and shooting of swimming caribou from boats

These heartless practices are highly detested by conservation groups and hunters alike. “Shooting hibernating mama and baby bears is not the conservation legacy that our national parks are meant to preserve and no way to treat or manage park wildlife,” said Theresa Pierno, National Parks Conservation Association President and CEO.

"I would say the vast majority of people did believe this was a controversial move and were almost entirely opposed to us lifting the ban," National Park Service spokesman Peter Christian told Reuters.

Even Alaska’s traditional hunters are disgusted with the rule. Jim Adams, a hunter who lives in Anchorage and the director of the National Parks Conservation Association, told NBC News that “these practices are quite extreme and they don’t have a place on national preserves for sport hunters.”

This ill-timed rule doesn’t just signal disaster for innocent bears, wolves, and caribou populations in their natural habitats in Alaska; it comes as the state scrambles to boost the economy after COVID-19 shutdowns and job losses. The Anchorage Daily News indicates that “a state-funded economic study found that watching wildlife contributed twice the value to Alaska as hunting. In one year, hunting brought in $1.3 billion and 8,400 jobs; wildlife viewing brought in $2.7 billion and 18,820 jobs. That’s more than twice the dollars and more than twice the jobs. In short, wildlife viewing is one of the best ways we will recover our economy.”

The Trump administration has made its stance against protecting and treating vulnerable beings with kindness and respect very clear. We hope that future government officials will instead lead with compassion for all.  What YOU Can Do:

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.