Airborne Hunting of Wolves in Alaska

Wolves’ population today is very small. Today, Alaska is the home of most of the wolves in America (Defenders of Wildlife, 2006). There are about 7,000 to 9,000 wolves in Alaska and they are endangered, because between 1996 and 2001, more than 7,000 wolves were killed. At this rate, grey wolves will be extinct in the near future.

The population of wolves in Alaska is decreasing sharply and Alaskans ignore that fact believing that wolves have no use, and that they are dangerous to the moose population, while according to Mr. Talbott (2005), brown bears are even more dangerous to the moose population than wolves, and they are more useless to us. Wolves can be trained to guard our houses and properties, as dogs do. They can also be trained to pull ice cargos as they are in many icy regions as well as Alaska, because they are very strong, and they can live and survive in such a cold place because of their thick skin and fur. Alaskans started to think about hunting bears as well, but they do not practice it as much as hunting wolves.

Some Alaskans tried to stop or reduce the aerial killing of wolves by voting against it, but they failed because there were not enough people opposing it to succeed in winning at the ballot, and the game board allowed their friends to hunt wolves using their private aircraft. “Shooting wolves from aircraft is the inevitable consequence of a delusional game management program based on … delusions”, according to Mr. Wittshirk (2006, par. 6), and they are as following. First, most Alaskans depend on moose meat for food and survival; this is not true because there are a lot of animals that can be depended on as source of meat and a survival substance such as fish. Alaskans can also buy and import meats and other kinds of food, because they have a lot of money from the huge profits of selling and exporting Oil. The second delusion is that wolves attack moose herds in popular areas of motor hunting. The third delusion is that the nature, no matter what, will provide Alaskans a large number of moose every year even though we are killing wolves by aircraft, having all of this mechanized population in Alaska and encroaching on moose habitats.

When aircraft fly in a low level near to the ground to hunt wolves, they scare moose and other types of animals that Alaskans can use as food sources. It’s noisy and that makes animals panicked and forces them to leave these areas to find more peaceful places to live in. Aircraft also use fuel to operate, while it is a big loss of aircraft fuel. It also causes a lot of air pollution and damages the environment, which can affect moose, other animals and humans. It can also cause a lot of health problems and diseases.

After Judge Sharon Gleason made her narrow decision in the case of the game board and the aerial wolf killing, the game board was caught violating their own regulations (Wittshirk, 2006). That indicates that hunters didn’t care about wolves or even laws, and it’s obvious that no one did anything about it, because we can see that there is still airborne hunting and aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska. We and Alaskans should start having actions to oppose it and reduce it because it is an effective action to eliminate wolves in Alaska.

Organizations that care about wolves and the wildlife should make studies, do research and give lectures to indicate and show Alaskans that wolves may be very useful to them in many ways, to make them acknowledge other sources of food, and to find other useless animals to hunt. So if airborne hunting was really necessary for some people, especially notable people with connections and political power, to have their enjoyment, we should convince them to hunt other species such as the brown bears especially because they exist in many other places than Alaska. When Alaskans recognize that, they will react faster and oppose the airborne and aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska even more. Most Alaskans may ignore the fact that wolves can be trained to do a lot of things (Wolf Park, 2000). They can be trained to pull cargo since they can resist the very cold weather and walk miles without getting tired. Wolves are also very strong; they can be trained to guard houses and other properties even better and smarter than dogs. Lundberg (2001) cites McLoughlin as saying, “In a wolf-sized domestic dog, the brain is often as much as 20% smaller than in wolves”. Creating and building centers to train them to do such useful work would be a very good job to be done by government.

Alaskans have the right to make new laws (Talbott, 2005), so when they believe that wolves shouldn’t be hunted in this inhumane way or else they will be extinct, they will vote for reducing or even stopping airborne hunting of wolves.

The Government should also apply strict laws to those who are caught hunting wolves in rural areas. In another way, government should allow wolf hunting in general for people with legal permits only if necessary, and apply a hard punishment to those who are caught hunting illegally. In addition, the government should employ more national guards to stop illegal hunters before they even hunt.
Those who are accepted to have permits to hunt wolves should have special qualities to have permits. They should have to be employed by the government and have special training such as learning how to hunt a wolf by only injuring it and not killing it and in a special way that makes it possible for the wolf to be treated.

Wildlife guards are really important to reduce the airborne hunting as well. They can be given modern airplanes and helicopters to watch the sky and prevent unauthorized hunters of hunting in rural areas. Wildlife guards can also help injured or sick wolves by taking them to medical centers or even apply first aid on them in case the injury is not too bad.

Aircraft fuel should be controlled so that it is only used for necessities such as traveling or ………… goods. Airlines fuel also can be taxed when used for entertainment and that would discourage hunters to hunt by using aircraft. The reason that we should as former is because aircraft as well as other machines and vehicles use fuel to operate. Fuel is burned in the aircraft and after that it goes out of it as a very bad mixture of greenhouse gases as consumptions. These gases are toxic and cause a lot of air and water pollution, which damages nature and the environment. They also cause a lot of diseases to people who breathe them. That means that they don’t only affect animals, but they also affect humans. Fuel used in aircraft is very expensive (Schiller, 2006), so by hunting wolves, which isn’t a very useful thing to do, fuel is wasted unnecessarily.

Besides its physical effects both on animals and humans, aircraft have other effects. Aircraft are very noisy when they are operated. When airborne hunting teams want to hunt wolves or other animals, they fly at a low level. Animals get scared and panicked from the noise of the aircraft, so animals escape and find more peaceful places to live in especially females with little babies, because they get afraid for their babies. And that is a big factor that Alaskans might not know about. This factor is one of many that make animals such as moose and caribou, which provide Alaskans with large amounts of meat, escape and travel to other places. That will make Alaskans lose a lot.
So there are three main solutions for this problem. First, the organizations that care about wolves should make studies, give lectures and do research in order to show Alaskans that wolves are more useful than useless. Second, the government should apply strict laws for unauthorized hunters. Finally, aircraft should be prohibited to fly within Alaska’s air zone, because of their negative effects on animals, humans and environment.

I hope that my research would encourage people to start thinking seriously about it and take a step forward in order to reduce airborne hunting of wolves in Alaska and help these helpless poor animals.


Bibliography:

Defenders of Wildlife (2006, March). Latest news. Defenders of Wildlife website. Retrieved in April 25, 2006 from:

http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/wolf/alaska.html

Lundberg, M. (2001). Power vs. dignity: The wolf in Alaska & the Yukon. Explore North. Retrieved May 1, 2006 from:

http://www.explorenorth.com/library/yafeatures/bl-wolf2.htm

Menatory, A. (2004). The art of being a wolf. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Schiller, B. (2006, May). Climate wise. Green biz. Retrieved May 2, 2006 from:

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=30809

Talbott, C. (2005, Nov. 8). Group targets airborne hunting. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis database, March 31, 2006.

Wittshirk, R. (2005, Feb. 24). Machismo, myth, money fuel wolf kill. Anchorage Daily News (Alaska). Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis database, March 31, 2006.

Wolf Park (2000). Wolf training & socialization: An important aspect of life that all captive wolves should enjoy. Retrieved May 1, 2006 from:

http://www.wolfpark.org/training/index.html

My Research Proposal

When I had the chance to choose one of many topics to write my essay about, I directly chose “Hunting Wolves in Alaska”, because I like wolves and though they are wild animals, they have the right to live and not be killed in such a tough and merciless way. Wolves’ population in Alaska is falling sharply, and one of the main reasons of this fall is the airborne hunting (Talbott, 2005). As the department of fish and game in Alaska allowed its board to hunt wolves in rural areas and in this ways, it has been hard to control the hunting process. After Judge Sharon Gleason made her decision in the case of the game board the aerial wolf killing in narrow, the game board was caught violating their own regulations (Wittshirk, 2006). People think that wolves are the most dangerous creatures to the moose population in Alaska, while the truth is that they are as dangerous as brown bears and even more useful for us than bears. Alaskans think that moose meat is the only source of meat they have and that they depend on it to survive, while that isn’t true (Wittshirk 2006). Alaskans also ignore the fact that aircraft that is used for the airborne hunting wastes a lot of aircraft fuel and it causes pollution and damages the nature which all creatures live from, including the moose. Flying with aircraft at a low level for hunting upsets animals and terrifies them, which will make them travel to other places to live safely.

I plan to write that we should do three things in order to reduce airborne hunting of wolves. First, we should educate Alaskans that there are benefits of wolves, and that moose meat is not their only survival source. Second, we should make studies and research about finding new sources of food for Alaskans and convince them to make rules to reduce the airborne hunting of wolves, because they have the right to make rules in Alaska. Finally, make Alaskans and other organizations that care about nature and the earth oppose the abundant use of aircraft and other machines for hunting, which causes environmental pollution and damage to nature.

I found a lot of articles that describe the problem and have many opinions and much information about it. I will try my best to show that it is really a big problem and needs to be solved.



References:
Talbott, C. (2005, Nov. 8). Group targets airborne hunting. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis database, March 31, 2006.
Wittshirk, R. (2005, Feb. 24). Machismo, myth, money fuel wolf kill. Anchorage Daily News (Alaska). Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis database, March 31, 2006.

Wolves Hunting By Using "Aircraft"

Wolves’ population in Alaska is falling sharply, and one of the main reasons of this fall is the airborne hunting (Talbott, 2005). As the department of fish and game in Alaska allowed its board to hunt wolves in rural areas and in this ways, it has been hard to control the hunting process. After Judge Sharon Gleason made her decision in the case of the game board the aerial wolf killing in narrow, the game board was caught violating their own regulations (Wittshirk, 2006). People think that wolves are the most dangerous creatures to the moose population in Alaska, while the truth is that they are as dangerous as brown bears and even more useful for us than bears. Alaskans think that moose meat is the only source of meat they have and that they depend on it to survive, while that is not true (Wittshirk 2006). Alaskans also ignore the fact that aircraft that is used for the airborne hunting wastes a lot of aircraft fuel and it causes pollution and damage the nature which all creatures live from, including the moose. Flying with aircraft at a low level for hunting upsets animals and terrifies them, which will make them travel to other places to live safely.

We should reduce the airborne hunting in Alaska, because they are being killed in huge numbers in short periods. If that continued and no body stopped it, wolves will become extinct.

Unlike bears, wolves can be very useful to humans in so many ways. Wolves can pull cargos and trained to hunt and guard. Alaskans also do not know that there are other sources of meat and survival than the moose. They have fish, since Alaska has many fish around its coasts, for example. We should educate Alaskans about these things and show them the benefits of wolves and the sources of food hey have rather than the moose.

Alaskans have the right to make new laws. We should take advantage of this situation by making some studies and research and introduce ways to find new sources of food and to use wolves in their daily lives. We should provide centers of training wolves to hunt and guard. We should also indicate areas where other animals that can be feed on, such as fish and whales, goats…etc. That way we can convince Alaskans to strict laws that can reduce or even stop airborne hunting of wolves.

As we know, aircraft and other machines that are used in the airborne hunting depend on fuel to work. Burned fuel is a source of CO2 and greenhouse gasses that cause a lot of environment pollution and damage to the nature. Aircraft also scare animals that Alaskans feed on, such as the moose, when they fly at a low level to hunt wolves. We should make people and environmental organizations that care about the earth to oppose this airborne hunting process and force the government to strict laws that protect the nature and not allowed airborne hunting in big numbers.

We have to reduce the airborne hunting of wolves in Alaska, because they are part of the nature and they are animals that have the right to live. We were not given this intelligence and power to harm animals by killing them for fun.


References:

Talbott, C. (2005, Nov. 8). Group targets airborne hunting. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis database, March 31, 2006.
Wittshirk, R. (2005, Feb. 24). Machismo, myth, money fuel wolf kill. Anchorage Daily News (Alaska). Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis database, March 31, 2006.

Arial Hunting of Wolves

Mr. Rudy Wittshirk wrote in his article in the Anchorage Daily News that Alaskans did their best by trying to stop or reduce the aerial killing of wolves by voting against it, but they failed and the game board allowed their friends to hunt wolves using their private aircraft. “Shooting wolves from aircraft is the inevitable consequence of a delusional game management program based on … delusions”, and they are as following. First, Most Alaskans depend on moose meat for food and survival. Second, Wolves attack moose herds in popular areas of motor hunting. Third, the nature, no matter what, will provide us a large numbers of moose even though we are killing wolves by aircraft, and we have all of this mechanized population in Alaska.

After what Mr. Wittshirk wrote in this article, we see that there are some facts and decisions made out of delusions and a “dirty game”, and the author tries to stop those delusions from spreading into people’s minds. Alaskans and the rest of the people around the world who are concerned about this problem are affected or tricked with what media shows and information that the game board, who also some how have their effect on media, introduce. We have to make Alaskans aware of such unreal facts and show them what really they are by changing the media view of this problem, or by making some arrangements such as lectures for discovering what the positives are and what the negatives of this problem are. That way we can change the picture of the facts that the game board planted in the Alaskans’ minds so they can oppose, as a land owners and citizens, the airborne hunting of wolves even more than before. In order to succeed in doing that, we should approve the opposite of these “delusions”, as Wittshirk named, as following.

Actually, Alaskans do not depend on moose meat, according to what Mr. Wittshirk wrote in his article. We should make people aware of that by not selling moose meat for a while and seeing what happens and show Alaskans that they will not notice it. After we do that, maybe we should make Alaskans stop buying moose meat. As a result, people will start to care less about moose and would stop or hunt wolves from aircrafts a lot less than before.

Alaskans know that fact that they are exposed to a much bigger danger when they allow aircraft teams to hunt in a disorganized way, but probably they don’t care about it. Aircrafts are machines that work on fuel. They are very expensive and their fuel is also expensive and causes a lot of nature pollution. The pollution of the aircraft not only affects the people in Alaska, it also affects the animals and nature and causes a lot of diseases and natural damage. We should put an end to the airborne hunting by reducing the use of aircraft and other machines. We should raise the price of the aircraft fuel, and that way airborne hunting teams are going to stop the airborne hunting as the time passes when they notice that it is costing them a lot to have their pleasure and kill and hunt wolves by using aircraft.

The government should do research to find out what the real dangers to the moose are other than wolves, and make laws and rules to not allow such things to be done. As I mentioned before, aircraft and other machines cause a lot of pollution and damage the nature, which in turn will reduce the number of moose that survive and live in nature. Besides, aircraft flying at low levels does really upset animals and make them run away to a safer place. So not only are the wolves dangerous to moose, but humans are also.

To reduce the airborne hunting of wolves in Alaska, we should reveal the truth about the delusions that the game board created, and to do that we should do as follows. First, educate people and make them know that moose isn’t the only source of meat and their survival doesn’t depend on it. Second, decrease the use of aircraft and other supportive machines that cause a lot of damage to the nature which moose lives depend on. Finally, we should not allow aircraft to fly above areas that have big numbers of moose and wolves, because it will upset them and make them move away, which in turn will reduce the number of moose in Alaska.



Reference:

Wittshirk, R. (2006, Feb. 24). Machismo, myth, money fuel wolf kill. Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis database, Mar 31, 2006.

Airborne Hunting of Wolves in Alaska

According to what Mr. Chris Talbott wrote in his article in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Alaska), more than 400 wolves were killed since 2003 in five different areas in Alaska by airborne hunting. People think that wolves have caused a decrease in the local moose population and predation, so they do not care about controlling the wolf hunting. A Research has shown that brown bears are involved in this problem much more than wolves and this is an important point Alaskans should be aware of. The Department of Fish and Game has a plan to control airborne hunting of wolves by issuing permits to private hunter-pilot teams. Although Alaskans oppose aircraft-aided hunting and state law allows citizens to make new laws through some procedures, they never thought about trying to criminalize or control the airborne wolf hunting.

Wolves, unlike the bears, are useful to us. Some people train them to be guarding wolves and some people use them to pull cargo, so I think they should illegalize or organize the airborne hunting and reduce the number of wolves being killed.

Airborne hunting is a really effective way to eliminate wolves. Talbott said: “More than 400 wolves have been killed since 2003”, so we should illegalize it for good. We should put strict punishments for air-craft hunting teams that are caught. Now if wolves represent a big danger to the moose, then it should be authorized for special people to hunt or even capture the number of wolves that brings damage on the moose population in Alaska. These people would work for the government or the Department of Wildlife.

Brown bears are not useful to human kind in anyway so it doesn’t matter if they were extinct or not; also there are plenty of them in other places, so if airborne hunting was really necessary for some people, especially notable people with connections to have their enjoyment, we should convince them of hunting other species such as the brown bears.

As I mentioned before, according to the article, Alaskans have the right to make laws and rules, so we should make them pay attention to the advantages of criminalizing all the Alaskan wolf hunting ways and protecting them from becoming extinct. They should also raise wolves so they can protect them and use them in many ways, such as using them for pulling cargos, guarding and even use them for hunting.

So we should prohibit airborne hunting by punishing whoever does it with strict punishments, guide people to hunt different species if necessary and make Alaskans pay attention to this problem and help wolves. As a lover of animals, especially wolves, because they are the symbol of strength and hope, I wish we can save them and protect them.


Reference:

Talbott, C. (2005, Nov. 8). Group targets airborne hunting. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis database, Mar. 31, 2006.

Polar Bears Drowning!

According to what Mr. Will Iredale wrote in his article in the Times newspaper, there is a problem of polar bears that drown n icy regions such as Arctic, Canada and Alaska, because of the melting of ice shelves. How is this related to the bears drowning? According to the article, Heat degree is raising, which is causing the ice shelves to melt and move apart, so the food sources are getting far away from the bears and in order for bears to get some food they will have to swim for long distances which they can’t do, so they drown.

What should we do in order to help the polar bears? What should we do to solve this problem? Well one of the most factors that makes’ the heat degree rise is the Ozone layer. As we know, the Ozone layer is the earths’ blocker of the sun bad rays and because of the hole in it the earth is more exposed to these rays which make the heat degree rises’ much more. One of the most dangerous and known factors that make the Ozone layer collapse is our sources of energy such as Petrochemicals, nuclear energy and so much more. We definitely have to change our sources of energy and develop it.

Most of the cars as we know, works on the petrochemicals and it create lot of toxic gases, which affect all kinds of creatures on earth and most important affect the Ozone layer such as CO2. What should we do about it? We cannot just stop using cars because they are very useful in our lives especially that every thing is going fast in our world, so we must develop cars to work on a better and safer source of energy. Actually, these days some of the cars companies had already developed new generation of cars that work on electricity. This new generation of cars is much better for both the environment and biologic life on earth.

We live in a time of evolution and development and we use a lot of human made things in our life that are pretty useful for us and many of these things are made by machines or in a better way, made in factories.


Refrence:

Iredal, W. (2005, Dec. 18) Polar Bears drown as ice shelf melts. Sunny Daily. Retrieved on March 27, 2006 from:

Go see the article