To the editor:
Again, in a recent letter, Marty Caress takes pen in hand and puts foot in mouth.
His letter notes the lawsuit brought by Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance to stop aerial killing of predators. He describes how he worked with Priscilla Feral of, he says, Defenders of Wildlife in 1993 and who, he continues, is part of this lawsuit.
Ms. Feral is not nor ever has been part of Defenders or the Alliance. Her group, Friends of Animals, is a non-affiliated organization with no connection to this action as a simple check of the court documents shows.
The lawsuit exists because the Alaska Outdoor Council-controlled Board of Game is ignoring what Alaskans have been saying in a growing majority: Stop the aerial killing. The danger to our wildlife is not from the Outside but the AOC and the game board.
Mr. Caress then endorses Sarah Palin for her support of aerial gunning. A recent e-mail from Anita Halterman, a Palin staffer, forwarded to me by Art Greenwalt explained Ms. Palin's views on aerial killing of predators saying Palin had read the biography of Frank Glaser, a professional wolf killer working some 60 years ago and had formed her stand based on that book.
Ms. Palin found his outdated principles "good science." Thus, she disregards two statewide votes in which Alaskans banned the practice and shows an ignorance of recent polls indicating 83 percent of Alaskans and 71 percent of Alaska hunters still disapprove. She also shows an ignorance of the 2005 letter sent by the American Society of Mammalogists in protest of the gunning, a letter they will repeat this year. She disregards such Alaskans as Dr. Vic Van Ballenberghe, Dr. Gordon Haber, Joel Bennett, Nick Jans, and Lowell Thomas Jr., all of whom oppose aerial killing.
Ms. Palin presents herself as one who studies issues in depth and listens to Alaskans' opinions. But when it comes to aerial killing, she toes the AOC line just like Murkowski.
We know what sort of governor he was. Ms. Palin seems determined to repeat at least one of his mistakes, and Mr. Caress is right there behind her.
Thomas J. Classen / Fairbanks
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