Friends of Animals and In Defense of Animals Howl in Portland, Oregon for 580 Imperilled Wolves
Portland, Oregon — On Sunday, Dec. 12, Oregon activists will howl in outrage over Alaska’s refusal to stop gunning down wolves.
Advocates will gather from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Pioneer Courthouse Square at Southwest Broadway & Yamhill, as Friends of Animals (FoA) and In Defense of Animals (IDA) host one of the more than 46 new Howl-Ins for cities across North America.
At a Howl-In, a recording of wolf howls fills the air while volunteers collect signatures on post cards — cards which will later be sent to Frank Murkowski. Each card is a pledge to boycott travel to Alaska until the wolf-killing ends.
At the same time as the Portland Howl-In, a television station will air FoA’s 60-second video on the Alaska Boycott campaign. The video will air from Friday, December 10 through Monday, December 13, during the 6:00 news broadcast on Portland’s NBC affiliate station. The video is also available for download on the FoA Web site at www.friendsofanimals.org.
The video represents the flight of one pilot-hunt team in Alaska. These teams are encouraged, through an official permit system, to take off for the habitat of wolves, swoop low to the ground, and chase and kill wolves. These teams have killed over 150 wolves since this permit scheme started up.
Although we oppose all killing methods, we note that this method of killing wolves had not been used since the late 1980s and is normally illegal in Alaska. But in spite of votes in which Alaskans opted to end same-day use of aircraft for public wolf hunting and trapping, the killing permits have Governor Frank Murkowski’s approval.
Last year, outraged when the state instituted this wolf-killing scheme, over 200,000 people pledged to boycott Alaska’s $2 billion-a-year tourism industry. But this winter, Alaska’s aerial wolf shooting has started up again, with a current target of up to 580 wolves.
Nathan Searles, of Friends of Animals in Portland, observed: “Holiday shoppers will be out this weekend, and we will motivate them to take a stand for these wolves.”
18 Comments
On December 11, 2004, Dale Laird wrote:
The only good wolf is a dead one. The reason God made wolves is so that they would become dead wolves with all four legs sticking up in the air.
Some of the lies your organization puts out on TV is evidence of a naive, mis-informed ignorance. You seem to have no idea of what a predator really is. If you had to actually live with them instead of trying to force your opinion on those who do, you would think quite differently.
On December 11, 2004, Lee Hall wrote:
Apparently, Friends of Animals’ television spots are being noticed.
The entry above provides visitors to our blog with as stark a proof as the written word provides for the vicious hatred with which wolves are singled out by the human being.
The comment demonstrates the kind of struggle against hate which animal rights, understood at its best, really is; and in this case it also offers a glimpse of the eerie competition that nonhuman predators face in territory that really should belong to them, and not to the naked ape.
Yes, Alaska, living near predators poses some risks. But then living as a member of a healthy global biocommunity means accepting that we cannot tame and dominate and control every other being that breathes and moves.
And actually, one need not share a commitment to the theory of animal rights to understand this. In an editorial recently published in The (London) Guardian, George Monbiot wrote:
“When Norwegian hunters set out to eliminate the wolves that kill a few dozen sheep in that country each year, or when, as they did last month, French hunters shoot the last female Pyrenean brown bear, we are rightly outraged. We see in them an intolerance of diversity, of contingency, of unruliness. They would reduce the world to a money-making monoculture, a bland, controlled, mechanical place that is as hostile to the needs of humans as it is to the needs of animals.
“I want to live in a land in which wolves might prowl. A land in which, as I have done in eastern Poland, I can follow a bend in a forest path and come face to face with a bison. In which, as I have done in the Pyrenees, I can stumble across a pair of wild boar sleeping under a bush. I am prepared to exchange a small risk to my life for the thrill of encountering that which lies beyond it. This is a romantic proposition, I admit. But is it not also a rational one?”
[Excerpt from “Why I’m a Wolf Man” by George Monbiot, The Guardian (7 Dec. 2004).]
On December 12, 2004, Ellie wrote:
So speaks the hateful rationalizations of wolf killers.
On December 12, 2004, Mary Hanson wrote:
Remember people we invaded their territory, not the other way around. As far as I’m concerned, if you have that much hatred for these or any animal, you’d be better off not being here. People like you are the reason the world is as it is today. And yes, we do live with predators, so we’re not as ingnorant as you may think!!
On December 12, 2004, Julie wrote:
Dear Dale Laird,
It seems to me that you are the one forcing your beliefs on us. I am sure that any wolf would say the same thing about humans, that the only good human is a dead one, because we are predators as well. Its the kind of thinking that humans own everything and that we can choose what gets to stay on this earth and what doesn’t that is going to eventually lead to our own extinction. Did you take high school science? Everything is interconnected-you kill off one species and everything changes. But you’re right- I don’t live with wolves and I don’t know what it is like to live with them. But I live in a city where people are just as bad or worse- I don’t go around killing them. Find another way to keep them away if you have to. Just because you don’t like something or they inconvenience you doesn’t mean you have to kill it. What they are doing in Alaska isn’t even killing them-it is running them to exhaustion (aka torture) and then shooting them for the fun of it. Heres a nice exercise for you: try being in their spot.
On December 13, 2004, May wrote:
I saw your ad on TV in Oregon and I too am deeply saddened about the wolves. I thought we had decided to re-introduce them into the wild in some states.
Why didn’t you add the governor’s (Frank Murkowski’s) email & snail mail address? That’d make it easier for us to contact him.
Thanks for your efforts.
On December 13, 2004, Priscilla Feral wrote:
Here’s the address:
Gov. Frank Murkowski
P. O. Box 110001
Juneau, AK 99811
e-mail: governor@gov.state.ak.us
On December 13, 2004, Scott Moran wrote:
Dale, I do live with wolves. A week ago while walking in Moose Meadows, I
was stopped in my tracks as a distant pack howled, echoing off the Chugach
range. I have seen their massive paw prints on the same trail up Crow
Creek. But I leave the wolves to do their thing.
On December 14, 2004, Ellie wrote:
Scott, I wish I had the opportunity to hear the echo of wolves howling. You write that you leave them alone to do their thing. I certainly agree with that, and I expect they will leave you alone to do yours.
On December 14, 2004, Bernice Baldwin wrote:
When will there be a Howl-In against those Alaska killers in the Los Angeles area?
Thank you,
Bernice Baldwin
On December 14, 2004, Priscilla wrote:
Bernice — If you will help us organize a Howl-In for Los Angeles, that would be wonderful. Our Web site lists the Howl-Ins underway, along with information on organizing one. Contact Daniel at: hammer@friendsofanimals.org for assistance.
Many thanks,
Priscilla Feral
Friends of Animals
On December 14, 2004, Cynthia Minde wrote:
I live in Arizona But I will be howling right along with you all. Good Luck. To the Wolves Howwwwwwwwwl
On December 15, 2004, Todd wrote:
The permit scheme which you refer to has been instituted by Alaska’s Board of Game as an effective means of lowering the number of wolves within an area that has become grossly overpopulated. This is rural Alaska, where the people still live a subsistence lifestyle. The moose population has been devistated by the overabundance of wolves. The only effective way to cover hundreds of square miles and reduce the number of these predators is with aerial hunting. Keep your howl-ins and your threats of tourism boycotts to yourselves. Don’t put your uneducated beliefs ahead of basic science.
On December 16, 2004, Daniel Hammer wrote:
Todd,
The Alaska Board of Game issues aerial wolf-killing permits to make the hunting of moose more convenient. The Board’s job is to promote hunting opportunities.
The wolves are not “grossly overpopulated” as you claim. According to the Alaska Department Fish of Game the problem is a low adult moose bull:cow ration caused by hunters. Wolves are being killed “to allow prey species to increase to population management objectives” in “areas managed for high consumptive use”.
Given that the Board and Department’s missions are to promoting hunting — not ecosystem health — these agencies use specious “wildlife science” to justify hunting. The predator-killing programs are being offered because wolves and bears compete with hunters. It has always been the mission of “game management” agencies to strive for “maximum harvest density”. If a healthy ecosystem was the goal of these agencies they would ban hunting. If the moose population has been devastated it is because of moose hunter, not the wolves.
On December 28, 2004, michael wrote:
we are wolves.
On January 5, 2005, Brandy wrote:
Dale, the number one predator are humans..we invaded their territory…why do you hate animals?
On January 8, 2005, lekha wrote:
please think people on what actions u do, as discovery and animal planet always says that
” this the need not greed which takes us places , as its not that we can go shopping on some other planet!!”“
so please stop this
On February 2, 2005, GAIL GRUTZIUS wrote:
Just what is it the way some humans think! To use the phrase “it’s just a sport”.
To kill another living creature.
It is not man’s decision to decide who lives or dies. Every living thing has a right to survive. It is all part of the eco system.
Nature has a way to control species, through desease, natures predators and weather. Not planned aireal shoots “just for an adrenalin rush”.
Nothing macho about this act of violence towards another living creature.