Christine Boddy wrote asking how Priscilla Feral of Friends of Animals was able to claim a majority of Alaskans disapprove of the aerial wolf hunts (letters to the editor, April 4). She wondered if anyone had received a phone call asking about this.
I doubt it. But what Ms. Boddy seems to have missed while waiting by her phone were two general election votes in which both times a majority of Alaska voters voted down aerial hunting.

She's missed recent polls showing not only has that number grown but even a large majority (71 percent) of Alaskan hunters disapprove of it. During the 1996 election a group of over 300 hunters in Fairbanks worked intensely to get the ban approved.

Did Ms. Boddy get a call from Ralph Seekins asking if she wanted aerial hunting reinstated? Did she miss a call from the Board of Game who, sometimes against the recommendations of Fish and Game, institute aerial hunting with a blithe disregard for the science of the situation? Did the BOG phone her to apologize for having made so many errors in their assertions of using science that they produced 77 pages of corrections after being brought before a judge?

We have seen our wildlife management policies hijacked by the extremists of the Alaska Outdoors Council who have filled the BOG with their members and who perpetrate such atrocities as aerial hunting and intensive management. As a result of these two processes the Tanana Flats across from Fairbanks has an overpopulation of cow moose mainly because of the decimation of natural predators. Biologists fear they are rapidly heading towards a crash in numbers.

Ms. Boddy tells how the BOG invites public participation but neglects to say they are not obliged to do anything about it. If it fits their apparent vendetta, it's approved. If not, it dies. It's rather arbitrary for the board has no concern for what a majority of Alaskans have demonstrated they want.

So Ms. Boddy didn't get a call from Priscilla Feral. But then none of us got a call from Ralph Seekins or the Board of Game or the governor asking if it's alright to destroy our wolves and bears in such a brutal and cowardly fashion, now did we?

Donna Carroll / Anchorage

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