by Shelley Peterson

Created on: February 25, 2009

It is said that predators take up to 80% of the moose and caribou that die each year while hunters only take 10%. On the other hand other reports suggest that trophy and sport hunters take at least 73% of the moose and caribou where aerial hunting takes place.

It is also said that predators can cause moose populations to decline to very low levels that can take years to recover from when, in fact, it is human predation of these animals that is causing serious declines in the moose and caribou populations.

It is out of state, wealthy sport and trophy hunters that are causing these declines not just other predators.

Aerial hunting actually causes extreme stress for the animal. It has been documented that aerial hunters chase the animals to exhaustion causing them to collapse and then land, walk up to them and shoot them like fish in a barrel. They call this hunting? There is no sport in this method of killing animals it is simply a slaughter.
Hunting involves tracking on the ground and taking your best shot for a clean kill. It requires skill and thoughtful strategy to be a successful hunter.
Aerial hunting doesn't require much, if any skill on the so-called hunter's part. It's the lazy man's way to hunt.

When hunting from the air most of the time it is buckshot that is used and it goes right through their bodies and splatters their blood all over the snow. This method does not maintain the quality of the fur and is a slow, extremely painful and cruel death. No true hunter would choose to hunt in this manner.

Often the Alpha-males are taken leaving the pack without a leader and most times only leaving the younger members of the pack to fend for themselves. Because of their lack of leadership and experience these animals end up wandering into villages, eating dogs and other animals.

Alaskans have voted three times in the past to ban the practice of aerial hunting (the most recent vote was on August 26/08) and twice, so far, the state legislature and Board of Game have overturned the vote so as to restore aircraft for hunting purposes. It is outrageous to ignore the wishes of the residence of Alaska and only goes to prove that the government is not interested in what the people want but only how much money they can make from the wealthy, out of state trophy hunters. This is absolutely appalling and under no circumstances should this blatant disregard of the voting process be permitted. It is obvious that the people of Alaska do not want the practice of aerial hunting to continue.

The Executive Director of Friends of animals, Priscilla Feral, is quoted as saying in March 2008, "The Game Board and its apologists in the bureaucracy have a reputation as a nursery for nitwit schemes. When the courts have ruled that the state's aerial wolf shooting schemes are breaking the law, within days, the Board of Game concocts new rules. Clearly they make stuff up, their process is a sham and they just want to shoot wolves everywhere in Alaska. This is an abuse of power."

The state's small but politically influential commercial hunting interests clearly intend to eliminate as many predators as possible in order to artificially increase the moose and caribou populations so it will be easier for the wealthy, out of state sport and trophy hunters to run down and shoot their trophy animals.

Take a look at the following web sites that show video of what actually occurs during aerial hunting.
You'll be shocked.

www.defenders.org/Save-Wolves

http://odeo.com/episodes/24051726-Aerial-Hunting-of- Wolves

I am obviously dead set against this form of so called hunting and so are real hunters. The reality of this type of so-called hunting is truly gruesome.

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