Defenders of Wildlife takes on Palin

In case you've missed it:

"Aerial killing of wolves may not be your standard national election issue, but it is one that helps illuminate an important part of Sarah Palin's character," said President of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund Rodger Schlickeisen. "We believe voters deserve to know about her support for this brutal practice, and we are confident the issue can move votes as we head into the home stretch of this campaign."




Alaska's aerial wolf killing program allows private citizens with licenses to fly in private planes and shoot wolves from the air or chase them to exhaustion before landing and shooting them point blank. The gunners then keep the pelts which they're allowed to sell for profit. The program also targets grizzly and black bears. The ad highlights Palin's shocking proposal of a $150 bounty to be given to aerial hunters in exchange for each severed left foreleg of a killed wolf.

"When John McCain picked the notoriously anti-environmental Sarah Palin as his running mate, he abdicated his once-admirable - if erratic - support for pro-environmental policies and settled once and for all the question of which ticket should be trusted with the care of our natural resources," concluded Schlickeisen

"Scientists and wildlife experts have consistently condemned Governor Palin's aerial wolf killing program, yet she continues to ignore sound science and promote the program," continued Schlickeisen. "Her biased approach is unnervingly familiar and is the last thing we need after eight years of President Bush's ideologically-driven approach to the stewardship of our air, land, water and wildlife, an approach that not only ignored government scientists' findings but often altered them in the public record. Palin seems quite at home with that approach."