Animals Doomed If Palin Runs This Country

This is written for Alternet by Michael Markarian from the Human Society Legislative Fund:

“Palin is not only a lifetime member of the NRA, but is also a close ally of Safari Club International. These radical groups don’t represent rank-and-file hunters, but instead lobby on behalf of their elitist, wealthy members to defend despicable and unsporting practices such as captive trophy hunts, bear baiting, and steel-jawed legold traps — practices that real hunters agree are inhumane and unacceptable.

And the Palin Administration, in lock-step with these extreme anti-conservationists, has waged an all-out war on Alaska’s predators to artificially boost the populations of moose and caribou for trophy hunters…Despite the effects of climate change on the bear’s vanishing habitat and shrinking ice floes, Gov. Palin penned an op-ed in The New York Times earlier this year arguing that it was the “wrong move” to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. Later, when the Bush administration announced its listing of the polar bear as a threatened species, she filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse the decision. Environmentalists fired back over Palin’s lawsuit and said “her head-in-the-sand approach to global warming only helps oil companies, certainly not Alaska or the polar bear.”

Read full article here

Filed under: animal cruelty, humane organizations, hunting, alaska, election, endangered species act, New York Times, palin, polar bears, safari club international, sarah palin, vice president, wolves

Palin Leaves Polar Bears Out In the Cold

This excerpt from Time.com about Palin says it all so I’m just going to quote it directly. Polar bears are of utmost importance to the Alaskan wilderness that are clearly endangered and disappearing right before our eyes, Palin maintains that polar bears are not worthy of being protected and preserved under the Endangered Species Act. It’s the oil – guys. That’s all she cares about.

polar bear image featured on Time.com by Daniel J. Fox /Corbis

“In January, Sarah Palin wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece, “[polar bears] are worthy of our utmost efforts to protect them and their Arctic habitat. But adding polar bears to the nation’s list of endangered species, as some are now proposing, should not be part of those efforts.” In May, the Alaskan governor opposed the Interior Department’s listing the polar bear as threatened, and prompted the ire of environmentalists and animal rights activists. In August, Palin, who has long advocated opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, rallied her fellow Alaskan officials to sue Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, arguing that extending protection to the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act is unwarranted and will hinder Alaska’s gas industry and offshore drilling development.”

via Time.com

Filed under: animal cruelty, election 2008, Global Warming, local issues, alaskan wilderness, endangered species act, Global Warming, polar bears

Bush/Cheney to Wipe Out Endangered Species Act

Bush and Cheney surprise no one by proposing to do one more bad deed before their presidency ends. With special interest groups these two are pushing to eliminate the Endangered Species Act, which for more than 30 years, worked painstakingly to protect and preserve wildlife that have been decreasing in numbers. These animals include the polar bears, whales, wolves, among many 1,400 other species.  Also reported by Defenders of Wildlife: “The Bush/Cheney proposal would block federal agencies from considering the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on polar bears and other animals threatened by global warming.”

Speak out now at this link which gets sent directly to your local government and stop the assault on the most important law enacted on behalf of wildlife of this earth. Thank you!

Filed under: Global Warming, international issues, Take Action, cheney, endangered species act, Global Warming, polar bears, president bush, Take Action, whales, wildlife preservation, wolves

Protect Our Wolves

This is an animal issue that I’ve been concerned about for a long time. It’s such a national dilemma often it’s difficult to get people to pay attention, especially when there is so much cruelty in our local animal population already.

These majestic creatures have been around for as long as scientists could remember. They are ancestors to dogs, and the reasons dogs exist today in so many forms, as beloved companions to millions around the world. Centuries of literature and fables misrepresent wolves as barbaric wild monsters that lurk the woods, killing people. Did you know, that there as never been a proven, documented case where a wolf has maimed or killed a person unprovoked?

No doubt, they are wild, and dangerous when their families and territory are threatened. They never purposefully seek out human beings. Long story short, wolf population, especially in the Northern Rockies, has declined faster than any known mammals alive today due to hunting and loss of habitat. As a result, in 1973 they were placed under the Endangered Species Act, with reintroduction in the rockies to restore population. Still, they are being illegally hunted, even in Yellowstone National Park which is protected by federal law. In the past decade, ranchers and farmers targeted them to allegedly protect their livestock, many from Idaho and neighboring states. People also hunt them for their pelts and as trophies; they fight in government for their right to kill.

Very recently, they got their wish, and the wolves were hastily lifted from the Endangered Species Act. Within 2 days, one of the most cherished senior member of a particular pack was gunned down. Enraged, animal advocates was able to get a district judge to place the gray wolves under protection immediately, now awaiting a court decision from the challenging parties. I hope that they will restore this protection permanently.

Wolves are an essential part of our environment. Like most life on earth, they are here to keep the order of the forests, of the animal life within, and maintain the food chain in balance, since they are top predators. With less wolves around, deer population will explode even further, necessitating the need to hunt them as well to keep their population in check. This requires us to re-examine our ways. Why do we kill animals that are doing nothing but fighting for their survival?  Like the harp seals which get slaughtered every winter in the Arctic and Canada, these animals do not get in our way. Why can’t we let them be?

Thankfully, there is such a thing called human intervention. Defenders of Wildlife is the nation’s leading wildlife organization in fighting for our wolves, next is perhaps World Wildlife Fund. I urge you to visit their website www.defendersofwildlife.org to learn more.

Think nationally, act locally. Thanks!

Filed under: animal cruelty, humane organizations, hunting, local issues, defenders of wildlife, endangered species act, hunting, wolves, yellowstone national park