http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mu_rqmFpL8

"It is just a grim, grim situation"

How they actually do it is not to shoot the wolves while they are running, but rather to make pass after pass until the wolves are exhausted, at which point they are shot - usually inaccurately, so they flop around in pain.

"Private sport hunters who own airplanes" - not state employees out to cull wildlife, and they get a gleeful kick out of it.

"A lot of it is just thrill killing."

"A lot of this is based on social and political dogma."

That's the truth behind most self-styled sport hunters in the modern world.

It's similar to the Bush Meat situation in Africa:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDMFuOGyLsw

A big problem with America and Americans is that we don't look and we don't see, whether it be the caskets of 4,000 American soldiers, the bodies of a million Iraqi citizens, or the unconscionable agonizing slaughter of one terrified and defenseless wolf. The picture and the film it comes from are worth much more than a thousand words. Don't pander, Salon. Keep the photo in place, and help us to confront the dark side of our humanity. Maybe, just maybe, enough of us will awaken from our passive slumber and actually do something as a result.

Women, children, old men, it's all good and nary a word of protest from you.

But shoot wolves????

That's monstrous!

/context eludes the psychopath.

I'm sure someone else already said it but I felt it would bear repeating. When I heard of this effort on her part to wipe out the wolf population, I wanted to punch her in the face. God, what a selfish cow! Sarah, you may have lost much of the animal lover population here.

I also want to add that I find the argument about wolves competing for food with humans to be specious. Perhaps what needs to happen is a limit on hunting in general so that there's more SUPPLY. What a jackass biatch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_palin

What a tool of the Right you are. Palin supported aerial wolf-hunting enthusiastically as governor. This is who she is: a vicious, cowardly, arrogant person. If you want to hunt, I say get the hell out of your plane, dump the military-grade gun and carry a knife. See what happens then. I'll be rooting for the wolves all the way!

This writer goes on about PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals) . Um, that's not the idea.

The comments on this are certainly divided.

I can hardly wait until the Vice Presidential debate comes up.

Sen Biden should make sure that he understands Down syndrome. Not to bring it up but just in case someone else does.

The old term for a child with Down syndrome is mongoloid idiot. The TV coverage showed the reason for the term.

Today, much can be done for such a child but it is very time consuming.

Gov Palin is just an ordinary idiot.

My real problem with all this is that it shows up Sen McCain to be a gambler. I much prefer Sen Obama's steady reasoning.

Humans like to believe they are better than they are. They exchange wolf paws for bounty. They consume more than they earn. They don't just maximize their expected utility: they maximize their own and minimize that of everyone else. I am ashamed to be a member of this violent race.

Judging by how Palin basically views any and all forms of hunting as being okay, isn't it perfectly likely that she may well have engaged in caged lion hunting?

Aeriel hunting is a barbaric practice and is assassination, pure and simple. If a plane were flying low in a city, and an assassin was shooting people, maiming or killing them, this would be absolutely unacceptable and all means would be taken to make the violence stop, provide medical care to the injured, and protect the people of the city. If that kind of violence were to take place on a regular basis just for fun, the perpetrators would be stopped and thrown into prison for the rest of their lives. We all remember what happened to John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. They weren't hurting anyone either, and it happened anyway. By the same token, there is no justification for this policy, especially since these wolves are unable to defend themselves or retaliate against the unknown and cowardly "hunter".

In this "civilized" country, something like this should not be happening. Sarah Palin's support of this program shows how uncivilized she and the supporters of this ruthless practice are. It shows another side of Palin that is very unsettling, considering her similarities to G. W. Bush and Dick Cheney. This is an prophecy of what horror will come to this country if this demented crackpot "soccer mom" and her presidential running mate, John "Hothead" McCain make it into the White House. It shows how incredibly callous and unfair their government would be.

Shooting animals from planes is not a sport: it's just a form sadistic target practice and is classified as assassination, period. The wolves are shot with rock salt which is torture, in essence, leaving the wolves in a tremendous amount of pain and suffering. Before aerial hunting, hunters would go into the woods and forests to try to shoot a deer, caribou or moose so they would have food for the winter. The hunters got their game and headed home to share the meat and skins for warmth with their families. That was about survival. Wolves are not being used for food, which is why the hunters left them along. Now, these "neo-hunters" are shooting wolves, their main competitor, so they can have better odds when they hunt. There is an overabundance of these animals because their natural predators have been killed by sadists. These are the yahoos who have stuffed wolf carcasses in their living rooms by the fireplace (much like the animal hide on Palin's couch), posed in a menacing position, to share their hubris with their friends and family. Perhaps this helps them allay guilt.

But how can people without conscience, including Sarah Palin, feel guilty?