are missing the part about Palin not understanding what wolves eat.

It feels better to think that this is being done for some rational reason, but I think we all pretty much know that at the end of the day it's being done for fun and not 'conservation'.

It's also silly to say that no one will care. Did you read the letters? Most people do care, and these sort of revelations about Palin's character will affect how the public feels towards her.

I think the fact that McCain is 72 and in less than stellar health is a factor as well, don't forget that.

But I do know that it is extremely uncommon for an animal predator to hunt a species to extinction. Nature has a way of balancing these things out. When a predator hunts a population to low numbers, the predator population will decrease also, since there is no food to be had. The whole process is self-correcting.

It is only when humans get involved in the equation that animal populations go awry. But then, a governor who is a little hazy about evolution would have trouble getting a grip on that.

I'm sure if pressed to defend this position, she would ultimately just say that, "She's just doing God's work."** It's hard to differentiate between the wild animal and the other in this situation. It also shows her lack of judgement as to inteferring with the normal, natural cycle, just to supposedly maintain her human hunting grounds. (We've seen the outcome of these kinds of tactics regarding other species before.) Can you imagine this person being in the second most important position in America. What sort of actions might be exhibited by this kind of thinking in winning the war against terrorism, if that becomes necessary?

** Please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H-btXPfhGs

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS_VduCWhzM&feature=related

for video presentations of such opinions on other issues.

What, the right in Alaska wants to graze sheep all over the place? No; God wants folks up there to eliminate all the "not me's." Or how about, everybody knows if we got wolves then we won't have many subdivisions planned? Because millions are just champing at the bit to move "up North." Polar bears, I'd be looking over my shoulder. Caribou would be next. After all, we don't want any "wildlife" to threaten "our" oil development, now do we? Proactive, I'd say. It must be about time for another large earthquake up there think April 1964).

I'm betting that neither Mr. Benjiman nor the majority of posters here have the background knowledge or education to have a valid opinion about predator culling. I can say that I am one of those people, so I will not offer an opinion of whether it is right or wrong. Instead, I will simply suggest that you not be swayed by the image of a dead wolf slung over the wing of an airplane or by videos of wolves sprinting across open snow away from hunters in planes. Nor should you be swayed in the opposite direction by attitudes toward wolves as dangerous or vicious. Instead, take some time to learn about the ecological balance in a place like Alaska that has a relatively low human population, vast amounts of open space, and a tradition of balance between human and animal that dates back 15,000 years.

Here is an interesting place to start:

http://www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=control.predator_prey

There's alot of talk about Palin ignoring "science" (science is in quotes here because of the way it is being used by detractors of wolf culling - as if science were some entity that we can turn to in order to protect whatever notion of human progress we hold dear), but our own emotional responses to the killing of the noble wolf are no more grounded in science than the idea of paying a bounty for pelts collected.

I'd love to put a bunch of Salon readers in a room full of endangered polar bears, wolves, and moose, and let them have the big love fest they so DESPERATELY crave!

WTF

the caribou population is booming so we don't need to worry about the effects of drilling in anwr, except that we need to kill off the wolves to save the caribou. i forgot how compelling that rightwing logic can be.

Gunning down helpless animals from the air is heartless and cowardly and begs the question of just who is the predator here. This woman is frightening, and even more frightening is the reality that if elected, she might need to step in as Commander and Chief. Her ideology would have sex education abolished in our schools, contraceptives made illegal, and Roe Vs. Wade overturned. Even our libraries would be compromised by her already documented abuse of power. We need to call an extremist an extremist, to shine a light on the shared anti-democratic ideology of McCain and Palin, the same ideology shared by Bush and Cheney, antithetical to civil liberties and democracy.

Poor old Salon first its the anti Clinton scenario and now its Palin. Thats what I like about nature its so polite and gentlemanly. You know the wolf before its downs a moose says "I hope you don,t mind if I eat you" just as the crocodidle says to the wildebeest before it drags it under "I hope you won,t take this personally" or the shark says "Have you got any mustard with you" No nature is very cruel and the wolf is not the friendliest of animals. If culling is necessary then it has to be done but as humanely as possible. The crocodile is sacred to the Indian and they won,t harm it and it repays that kinndness and eats 100s of them every year children included

There is a spelling error in the article: "he adds about the state's rational for gunning down wolves" should use "rationale", not "rational".

who the demented sack of shit was that supported this policy. I have been receiving emails from activist organizations that plead and beg for us US citizens to plead and beg for this abominable practice to stop. "Culling" is just a euphemism for killing, and worse than that, these inhuman freaks ENJOY this. Coming from Texas, I've heard more than my share of bull about how this is necessary (in this case they're defending trophy hunting of deer or any remaining wildlife)to control the numbers of deer or the poor little things will starve, despite all the troughs of deer food they leave all around to lure near their hunting blinds so they can shoot from the comfort of their beer infested camouflage murder boxes. The reason there is even a problem with the population of evil deer and dangerous white tail doves is because their natural predators have been shot to near extinction by these same hunters. So justifying what is basically glorified trophy hunting by claiming that it's in the best interest of the targeted species group due to an overpopulation problem that THEY THEMSELVES CREATED. ugh. I want to barf. On Sarah Palin. I hope her plane goes down one day in the arctic wilderness and she lives long enough to feel what it's like when the wolves get her on their turf.