Governor Sarah Palin Encouraged Aerial Wolf Hunting
Posted on September 23, 2008
Slate has an article about the controversial practice of Aerial Wolf Gunning, where wolves are hunted and shot from an aircraft. John McCain's vice presidential pick Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska supports the practice and proposed cash incentives to encourage more of it.
Aerial shooting yields better results than traditional hunting, since it allows the hunter to cover a lot of ground quickly and track target animals from a clear vantage point. Historically, hunters also used planes to drive animals-polar bears in Alaska and elk in Montana, among others-toward gunmen waiting on the ground. But many hunters found the practice unsportsmanlike, since it violates the "fair chase" ethic, and animal rights activists call it inhumane, since airborne gunmen rarely get a clean (i.e., relatively painless) kill. In response to concerns like these, Congress passed the Federal Airborne Hunting Act of 1972, which made it illegal for hunters to shoot animals from a plane or helicopter.A CNN story from 2000 quotes the Alaska Department of Fish and Game commissioner who says wolves are often chased to exhaustion when this hunting tactic is used.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game commissioner Frank Rue says, "To track and spot a wolf from an aircraft, land and then kill it, is not considered to be a fair chase method. We know from past experience that the practice leads to other abuses such as chasing wolves to exhaustion, herding wolves and shooting them from the air."
This certainly does seem like an inhumane practice. The video below is against Aerial Wolf Hunting. It is from Defenders of Widlife.