I was outraged regarding Sunday's Associated Press story of the shooting of 14 wolf pups in the head at their dens in Unit 9, on the Southern Alaska Peninsula.
I do not recall that shooting pups was part of the infamous "wolf control" authorized by the state Game Board. The act was a unilateral decision made by an individual who will not face legal ramifications - but he will have to live with his inhumane act and poor judgment for the rest of his life.
He simply had no right to shoot these pups. He based his decision not on science, but on "declining numbers in the local caribou herd." We know herds rise and fall in numbers, cyclically, all over the state.
Alaska will respond to this act come the next wolf initiative election. This one act may have tipped the scales in favor of the wolf, and therein lies some redemption for this heinous act.
Jon Pond
Juneau |
