When reports first came out of people describing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as "manipulative" and "conniving," it was just words. But the more we learn about her short history in leadership positions, the more believable these allegations become.
How a person treats animals says a lot about their character. Just because a person identifies as a hunter doesn't mean they can't respect wildlife. There is a difference between someone who enjoys fishing and someone who gets a barrel and a shotgun and takes everything with fins. The latest revelations from Mark Benjamin at Salon.com reveals Palin to be of the latter persuasion.
In Alaska, the state encourages the culling of the wolf population by its citizenry, so -- in the theory of rabid hunters -- as to cultivate a larger moose population for hunters, both subsistence and recreational. This video from Defenders of Wildlife shows a brief look at the process of killing a wolf from an airplane in Alaska.
"It's not a clean kill," a narrator states. As you'll see in this video, the wolves often are injured and bleeding, only to be finished off after the plane lands. Other times, the gunner can't hit the wolf at all, so the pilot chases it until it reaches utter exhaustion. Benjamin describes the wolves as easy to target, much "like targets in a video game, sprinting across the white canvas below."
Sure, Palin's advocacy for such bloodletting is concerning on a personal level. But it's not just the cruelty of the action, it's how Palin manipulated governmental processes and public opinion to get what she wanted and to satisfy the powerful Alaskan hunting lobby -- and the particularly "thrill shooting" wing of that group, because more conservationist hunters are against her policies. That's where the story throws up legitimate questions about her fitness to govern the nation.
Link to entire article & video:
http://www.buzzflash.com/
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
