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No wolf whistles for Sarah Palin’s compassion

By Walt Brasch - posted Thursday, 11 September 2008


And that’s what I am going to write about. Sarah Palin and her boom-boom mentality. She loves to kill animals. As a youth, she went out daily so she could enjoy mooseburgers. I don’t know how much burgers a slaughtered moose can provide, but I suspect that if she, her family, and all of their friends ate all of the moose she killed, the cholesterol and obesity levels in Wasilla, Alaska, would be significantly higher than the national average.

Killing moose is apparently one of the reasons that as governor she encourages wolf hunts. Alaska is the only state that allows hunters to use helicopters not only to kill wolves but also to chase them down and then execute them while they lay exhausted from the chase. No hunter would ever consider this to be fair chase hunting.

Palin has even offered a $150 bounty for every wolf killed in Alaska. Kill every one of the 9,000 or so wolves in Alaska, and the taxpayers will reap a harvest of about $1.3 million. And, don’t worry about wolves being extinct in Alaska. There’s still another 5,000 or so in the Lower 48, most of which are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

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Wolves are highly intelligent social animals, who are loyal to their mates, care for their children, and protective of all in their pack. Humans should emulate them rather than murder them.

But just this past May, Sarah Palin had no problem with her own Department of Fish and Game killing 14 orphaned wolf pups in their own dens, in violation of her state’s own law.

Killing wolves doesn’t give hunters the excuse that they kill for meat or clothing. Wolves provide absolutely no meat value, and wolf coats are just not the fashion item for this season. Except when deliberately provoked, wolves don’t attack humans. Even then, wolves try to avoid human contact.

So, the killing of wolves serves only two purposes. The first is because Mighty Joe Hunter can get a trophy. Sarah Palin is a close ally of the Safari Club, which believes in killing animals and mounting their heads on cedar-panelled walls. The other reason is because wolves are her competitor - they hunt caribou and moose, the kind that Sarah Palin wants for her own dinner table.

No, I won’t write about Sarah Palin’s political philosophies. Her disregard for life is enough.

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About the Author

Walter Brasch is professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University. He is an award-winning syndicated columnist, and author of 16 books. Dr. Brasch's current books are Unacceptable: The Federal Government’s Response to Hurricane Katrina; Sex and the Single Beer Can: Probing the Media and American Culture; and Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush (Nov. 2007) You may contact him at brasch@bloomu.edu.

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