Ashley Judd Slams Palin

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[BigSlick]

I am in love with Ashley Judd.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/02/ashley-judd-slams-sarah-p_n_163312.html

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

[Deuce2 AL Renegade]

This doesn't involve Ashley Judd, but it does say something about SP and Ariel Hunting...

Santa Claus, on the psychiatrist's couch:

SANTA: ...then there was a gunshot, and a woman's voice saying "You Betcha!"... and Rudolph was dead!
(heard on NPR)                 

[Irishgirl]

I am in love with Ashley Judd.

Me too. 

Go Ashley, you tell her.

[Democrat G]

More people need to be vocal about it.

[Pawprints in the Snow]

I'm thrilled to read about this.  And I'll never forgive my (until then)  best friend for responding to my rant about aerial hunting with "so what, they're predators."  Where I live, people with guns are beginning to salivate over the annual Predator Challenge.......let's see if we can kill more predators than last year.  Complete with pictures of the carnage on the front page of the newspaper.   I'm hoping the little fox who visits my yard to munch on fallen birdseed pitches a tent there for that horrid weekend.

[0whole1]

I'm thrilled to read about this.  And I'll never forgive my (until then)  best friend for responding to my rant about aerial hunting with "so what, they're predators."  Where I live, people with guns are beginning to salivate over the annual Predator Challenge.......let's see if we can kill more predators than last year.  Complete with pictures of the carnage on the front page of the newspaper.   I'm hoping the little fox who visits my yard to munch on fallen birdseed pitches a tent there for that horrid weekend.

I like hunting; I don't like blasting away at animals like they were clay pigeons.  One's communing with nature, the other's scraping your bloated, corpulent self off the sofa long enough to stick your can of Coors down on top of your son's head and pull a trigger a couple dozen times.

Just my opinion, though.

[Pawprints in the Snow]

I'm not opposed to hunting for food.  Not too keen on hunting over bait, but it's legal here.  A weekend devoted to killing predators because they are predators, though, I find unsettling.  At least no one, afaik, uses an airplane.

[BigSlick]

Subsistence hunting is practical and honorable. 

The goal should be a balanced and natural eco-system, and humans have broken that balance by being too "successful" with technology for their own good.

The way the arial hunting and trophy hunting is managed in Alaska today is simply repetitive murder of animals that should be considered our valuable partners in that eco-system.

Here in Oregon, we have deer over-population followed by starvations and diseases running wild on a regular cycle because the natural predator population of wolves and puma have been decimated by humans.  The deer population then suddenly dips dangerously low on a downcycle when diseases and starvation due to overgrazing decimate the herd.  Every four or five years or so it seems that the deer have disappeared for good, but they always seem to come back and in two or three short years they over-populate again and then we have to have a "long season" where basically the hunters are told to shoot as many as possible -- but its too late by then, the deer are already overpopulated, sick , and starving.  Someday that cycle is going to stop because the diseases will kill them all off and some hunter will shoot the last healthy doe.  The elk population has had similar problems, but less extreme in the peaks and valleys of their numbers.  Elk have been better managed to some degree, but the herds were very nearly destroyed completely in the 70's and 80's and strict regulation was required to bring their numbers back.  My brother takes an elk every year, and just this year has reported several illegal hunters taking more than their tags allow or even search-light hunting at night.

As for wolves, they were exterminated completely from Oregon.  Recently, Oregon started on a balanced recovery plan and reintroduction of the grey wolf has been going on for a couple of years.

But local sheep ranchers have shot the wolves that have been reintroduced and legally protected by the Federal Fish, Game & Wildlife Agency. When the deer are not abundant, we have puma sightings in urban or suburban areas.  The rare attack on livestock then drives locals into a frenzy and somebody's dog gets shot by accident, mistaken for a puma. Then two or three puma get slaughtered and the villager blood-lust is sated until the next sighting.  In all my years, I know of only one puma attack on a human, and that person collided with the cat on a mountain-biking trail so I think the cat might have been a little provoked.

I had one neighbor tell me last year he thought we had a puma taking neighborhood cats for snacks -sure enough about 15 cats were missing in our neighborhood.  My rottweilers were going nuts in their kennel every night so I thought maybe, just maybe, there really was a puma daring to enter our edge-of-the-city community.  But then that same neighbor found cat bones and carcasses under his backyard decking when clearing a raccoon nest under his house. This year we had an over-population of rabbits in the nearby woods and fields, followed by a surge in coyotes, and now that its winter housecats are disappearing even faster. My neighbor's still looking for that puma. Meanwhile, there are now skunks under his porch thriving on what they get from his unlocked garbage cans. I am tempted to let my younger rottie out of the yard to go over there and stir that nest up... he caught a skunk in my yard once and seemed to like getting sprayed.

The most fragile part of the eco-system is the predator population.  In the natural balance, there are so few predators in proportion to the herds they manage ( as long as humans aren't the ones killing off the herds too fast! ) that it takes a lot longer for the predator population to bounce back after it is knocked way down. The herds are designed to come back more quickly, Mother Nature has seen to that in her original plan.

Its much better to simply allow the predators to thrive.  Back off, and let the natural predator cycle run, since the predator population will balance out in proportion to the size of the herds available as long as humans haven't over-hunted the herds.  And in that case a temporary sport hunting ban will bring the herd back. Humans also tend to shoot the strong members of the herd, leaving the sick to spread disease.  Wolves take the weak and diseased, thereby actually strengthening the herd. They are much better caretakers of their prey than we will ever be. If we want better quality animals to hunt, let the wolves do their job, dammit!

What Alska needs right now is not to reduce natural predators.  Alaska needs to limit hunting to only subsistence tags and let the herds balance to a level where they support the natural wolf population instead of blaming human-caused herd population imbalances on the wolves.

Sarah need to reign in her own blood-lusting friends, and her own blood-lusting self.

[aggirl]

Big Slick, very well said. 

I am not a hunter ever since I went out with my brother and his cronies to hunt pheasant.  I bagged a rabbit, always could lead a target when at the shooting galleries. My lady friends (I being in that category) were horrified that I killed a bunny rabbit. I thunk on it and felt that yes, I did not NEED to do that again.

JaneE

[the problem child]

BigSlick: Couldn't agree more with your analysis. Might I suggest you send it as a letter to the editor to the AK papers?

aggirl: I'm with you: I can target shoot with the best of them, but don't want to kill anything.

[Erin]

Here's ADN's take on this:

Movie's star group slams Palin and wolf control

[Forty Watt]

Thanks for the link Erin.  Palin is quoted once again as saying the aerial shooting of wolves is scientifically based.  I wish someone would point me towards this science.

Every attempt I make to find differing points of view fails.  I only come up with information like the following:

Gordon Haber is a wildlife scientist who has studied wolves in Alaska for 43 years. "On wildlife-related issues, whether it is polar bears or predator controls, she has shown no inclination to be objective," he says of Palin. "I cannot find credible scientific data to support their arguments," he adds about the state's rationale for gunning down wolves. "In most cases, there is evidence to the contrary."

Last year, 172 scientists signed a letter to Palin, expressing concern about the lack of science behind the state's wolf-killing operation. According to the scientists, state officials set population objectives for moose and caribou based on "unattainable, unsustainable historically high populations." As a result, the "inadequately designed predator control programs" threatened the long-term health of both the ungulate and wolf populations. The scientists concluded with a plea to Palin to consider the conservation of wolves and bears "on an equal basis with the goal of producing more ungulates for hunters."

[Erin]

I got this from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game:

Currently, five wolf control programs are underway that comprises about 9.4% of Alaska's land area. The programs use a closely controlled permit system allowing aerial or same day airborne methods to remove wolves in designated areas. In these areas, wolf numbers will be temporarily reduced, but wolves will not be permanently eliminated from any area. Successful programs allow humans to take more moose, and healthy populations of wolves to continue to thrive in Alaska.

This page does not reference any research, but when I clicked on Overview of Relationships Between Bears, Wolves, and Moose in Alaska at the bottom of the page, the new page does list several resources that look like research.  I don't have time to look at them right now, but thought you all might be interested.

[BigSlick]

I got this from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game:

Currently, five wolf control programs are underway that comprises about 9.4% of Alaska's land area. The programs use a closely controlled permit system allowing aerial or same day airborne methods to remove wolves in designated areas. In these areas, wolf numbers will be temporarily reduced, but wolves will not be permanently eliminated from any area. Successful programs allow humans to take more moose, and healthy populations of wolves to continue to thrive in Alaska.

This page does not reference any research, but when I clicked on Overview of Relationships Between Bears, Wolves, and Moose in Alaska at the bottom of the page, the new page does list several resources that look like research.  I don't have time to look at them right now, but thought you all might be interested.

There are references to research on that page and they will twist the research to say what they want it to say. An independent academic study is needed.

[Erin]

I got this from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game:

Currently, five wolf control programs are underway that comprises about 9.4% of Alaska's land area. The programs use a closely controlled permit system allowing aerial or same day airborne methods to remove wolves in designated areas. In these areas, wolf numbers will be temporarily reduced, but wolves will not be permanently eliminated from any area. Successful programs allow humans to take more moose, and healthy populations of wolves to continue to thrive in Alaska.

This page does not reference any research, but when I clicked on Overview of Relationships Between Bears, Wolves, and Moose in Alaska at the bottom of the page, the new page does list several resources that look like research.  I don't have time to look at them right now, but thought you all might be interested.

There are references to research on that page and they will twist the research to say what they want it to say. An independent academic study is needed.

Agreed.  I just wanted to make available the research that Ms. Palin seems to rely on.

[0whole1]

Agreed.  I just wanted to make available the research that Ms. Palin seems to rely on.

...to even out the legs on her dining room table.

On the face of it, blasting away at one part of an ecological system that survived for, what, *millions* of years just fine, and then saying that scientific evidence supports it seems like....contradictory statements.

The only animal I might accept as needing to be exterminated is the mosquito (malaria, dengue fever, etc), and even then I'd be worried about screwing things up.

[Forty Watt]

While looking for more up-to-date research I came across an interesting article in Gender and Society, 2006, Volume 20 (3), pp. 332-253).  The title  is Retrofitting Frontier Masculinity for Alaska's War Against Wolves.  Unfortunately, I can't offer a ink.

The authors have analyzed articles in the ADN to determine how cultural myths of masculinity are being used in service of the war on wolves.

The state of Alaska has a complex historical relationship with its wild wolf packs...
Originally, state policies were shaped by frontier masculinity and characterized by claims of sportsmen’s rights to kill wolves. With the reinstitution of an aggressive wolf-eradication project, Alaska policy makers retooled frontier masculinity.

This altered form of masculinity, retro frontier masculinity, is constructed at the state level and deploys new strategic emphases: vilifying opponents as feminized sissies, casting wolf hunters as paternalist protectors, reifying the masculine family provider role, and framing the issue as fundamentally about competition. (p.332)

Obviously this is a very small part of a long article.  It is a reminder that there are always layers of meaning in any situation.

[Democrat G]

AOL, who supports PALIN with their lips firmly on her bunghole has a poll where Judd is being bummed on.  VOTE FOR JUDD

http://www.popeater.com/movies/article/sarah-palin-ashley-judd-feud/331068?icid=200100397x1218661651x1201190766

[Deuce2 AL Renegade]

AOL, who supports PALIN with their lips firmly on her bunghole has a poll where Judd is being bummed on.  VOTE FOR JUDD

http://www.popeater.com/movies/article/sarah-palin-ashley-judd-feud/331068?icid=200100397x1218661651x1201190766

Those voting results certainly appear to be quite biased against Ashley......

[pj]

If you must kill a thing that runs on the ground and decide you need an edge at least keep it on the ground!!!!!!!!!
This entire subject is soooo out of line with common sense that I can't keep from piping in. I've had to hunt coyotes and wolves as part of my job as a ranch hand. It's part of life, the livestock needed to be protected from a predator...but my employeer (an ethical man who homesteaded his land) armed us with rifles, scopes, pick-ups, four-wheelers and snow mobiles (it's a Wyoming thing)...no aerial advantages!!!!
DAMNED this type of killing and the persons who call themselves HUNTERS for participating in it!