The Associated press reports that a group of antis called "friends of animals" based in conneticut yesterday sought a court order to stop predator control from airplanes in the McGrath area where it is needed to help manage big game herds for subsistence hunting by the locals, who otherwise have to fly 300 air miles to shop.

If a temporary restraining order is not ordered then they intend to protest with a nationwide tourism boycott.

I find this annoying as hell and reading this today has encouraged me to go Coyote hunting this weekend. My new goal is to shoot one predator for every such article that continues to pollute my newspaper and/or tellevision in this fashion..

So theres one dog and counting.

I'm not surprised. Seems as if the entire state is controlled by damned "foreigners", so to speak. Everybody who doesn't live here is an expert on how we Alaskans should live our lives. The Feds have locked up huge portions of the state and there's preferential hunting to boot. A very interesting point to me occured when Clinton locked up about 15 million acres of Utah land & Senator Orran Hatch (SP?) from Utah yelled & hollered like a stuck pig. I'd like to know why he didn't back us when Carter locked a hell of a lot more than 15 million acres of Alaskan land.
Don't get me going on this one. Everyone's equal, some are just more equal than others. Enough of my ranting. Bear in Fairbanks

[ 11-27-2003, 23:16: Message edited by: Bear in Fairbanks ]

Maybe what we need to do is file suit to force the state of Connecticut to SUCCESSFULLY reintroduce wolves in their own state before meddling in the affairs of others.

Huntsternorth:
Geez, man, can'tcha have at least a little pity on the poor wolves? I wouldn't wish that one my worst enemy.
Bear in Fairbanks

[ 11-28-2003, 22:00: Message edited by: Bear in Fairbanks ]

And that's not all. Those animal wright groups can have "locals" collecting signatures to interfere with game and predator management in Alaska. They have paid minimum wages to signature collectors in the past, something that is legal in accordance with the Alaska Constitution. Do you remember a few years ago when the Outdoors Council brought forth to the ballot a way to close the loophole in the Alaska Constitution? Well...the rural areas residents voted "yes" to amend the Constitution and close the loophole, but the city residents, mostly from Anchorage voted "no." As you may know, Anchorage and Juneau residents outnumber Fairbanks and rural communities at elections time.

As long as the Constitution allows outsiders to control us at the ballot, they got us by the balls.

[ 11-29-2003, 06:16: Message edited by: Ray, Alaska ]

HI,

To bad for me I live in connecticut.And this kind of action does not surprice me at all.I will move to the great state of ALASKA as soon as possible. One more thing why connecticut would not like wolves here is the DAM YUPPIES WOULD NOT WANT TO SEE THERE PRETTY LITTLE DEER RIPP APART. thanks,Kev

I hope it gets cleared up soon.

I don't give a rats ass about the "friends of animals".

It is a sad situation and I think that the judge who order the stoppage should be removed from his position. He should have told f.o.a. "up yours".

[ 11-28-2003, 00:06: Message edited by: RMiller ]

Bear,

Im hearin ya! Not everything that Senator for life Hatch does that "appears" to be in Utah's best intrest really is. He's just a self serving beaurocrat like the rest of them.

Preferential hunting has virtually consumed this place, it pisses me off to no end.

Byren

Ray, et al Alaskans:
Remember a number of years ago when those "effing" foreigners tried to tie up the brown bear drawings by flooding the system with permit applications? That's when the State came out with the policy that all fees had to be paid for up front and if not successful, the non-resident tag portion was returned. That really got the anti's shorts in a bind & their voices went up an octave or two. Now, that they have to pony up mucho denero (sp?), their wallets are more important than their principles. Figures. Don'tcha just love it? Bear in Fairbanks

The anti's have not seen the damage done by the wolves. In one winter on the Yukon, south of Nulato, a buddy and I ran a trap line for fun. Just within the first 1/4 mile where the willows meet the river we found 11 moose killed by wolves from Jan. till April. in a length of river about 15 miles long.

At one site the wolves just killed a huge cow and left her. You could see that the first attack came to the nose of the cow. It appears they bit the nose and let it bleed out to a weakend state then attacked and ate it alive.

The anti's don't see this......

Maybe more granola crunchers will get eaten by the cute, cuddly bears down on the Alaska Peninsula too. Wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Bear in Fairbanks

It pissed me off when I read about the judge ordering a stop until both sides can come up with there case. At the same time, I expected it, with all the huggers here in town and of course our government (the lower 48). As far as I'm concerned screw them.

Just think if that prick Knowles woulda challenged the Katy John case. Maybe things woulda been different. Never mind, too much money coming in from outside for it to rule in favor of all alaskans, not just a certain few.

JoelS: I here ya there. Now, that SOB wants to "fight for Alaskans" way down in foggy bottom by challenging Lisa Murkowski. Sure he will. I can throw him further than I trust him. Bear in Fairbanks

Joel & Bear:

I can see that you guys are tuned in to the future. Dimples might be our next Senator for Life, unless King Ted can successfully install his son into his throne before he finally dies the way Frank did Lisa. As pissed off as I am about the Lisa hand-me-down, a Knowles Senator would be worse.

They've got us by the balls. They're all snakes, some just more poisonous than others. I'm beginning to hate career politicians more than lawyers and judges.

I dread the time if Tony gets elected as sen. We think AK is run by outsiders now, just wait. I dont want to see Teds boy in DC (I got a thing about families monopolizing political arenas) but he would be a hell of a lot better for the state as schmuck boy.

Well this is B.S. isn't it...now they have a restraining order and will go to court on Tuesday. Here's a thought for you, the nutso that is running the Friends of Animals says "Basically it is putting the economic screws to the Murkowski administration" I hope someone puts the screws to her! To top it off her name is Feral, now that's a dandy deal, I wonder what she was before she went wild? So what can we do now? There needs to be some way to counter their action so Alaskan's can go on being Alaskan!

John

Screw em! Maybe I will go to Alaska on vacation to counter thier boycott!

I HATE PEOPLE LIKE THAT!!! And I am not talking cute huggy hate where you punch each other on the arm, I am talking the baseball bat kind.

I think that all states should have certain rules:

1. Nobody that is not a resident of the state for a minimum period of time may file suits against the state

2. no court outside the state may make judgements against the state (it is easy to fight court battles on your own territory where you don't pay for hotel, dining, etc.)

and here is one I think should be enacted in all government in the US:

"No person shall be elected to office if they have not spend a minimum of 10 years in honest work." meaning not the political arena and not the "family business"

Career politicians and political families are evil. they are! there should be term limites on senators and congressmen. I mean come on get feinstein and that other nazi broad from CA out already!!!

Maybe Alaska can stop the spiral in their state before it gets out of hand (like CA). try to get a couple laws on the ballot for the next vote. I would start with no outside courts making rulings. I would also try the one about residency for filing suits and put a clause in it about signatures that are paid for being invalid.

gosh, I win the lottery and I am becoming a lobbyist for intelligent things. I am going to call MY group "Real Americans for Common Sense" and it will specifically say on our website "yes, we are directly implying that to supports law and ideals that don't make sense is anti-american". see how many that pisses off.

I hate laws in general, most needs to be erased, but it looks like with the proliferation of the disease Stupidity, we need to make some for protection. How about only Vegan's are allowed to express anti-hunting opinions, since everybody else would be hypocrytical? :-)

Red

Guys: My personal opinions on tourism in general is that it's a phony way to base a region's economy. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against tourism in conjunction with other economic sources but...
Firstly, if the general economy of the country turns down, there goes your tourism. In this case, people spend what money they have on life's necessities and not on something as frivolous.
Secondly, tourism doesn't produce wealth. Nothing is manufactured for resale on the open market.
Finally, try supporting a family with 2.3 kids, paying for a mortgage & 1, perhaps 2 vehicles along with the rest of life's requirements by working in the tourism industry. Not to say that some don't but... You folks ought to see all of the empty hotels here in the winter. The tour companies just shut'em down until spring.

Yup! In my mind tourism is what I call a false economy and I for one, don't give a damn if any granola cruncher never sets foot up here.
That's my opinion & not worth a whole lot. Bear in Fairbanks

Gentlemen,
It heartens me to see that there are still some people left in this state who believe in state's rights and don't mince words about it. A tourism boycott would hurt, but some things are worth the price. The state gave in once to a threat of a boycott, and it was a mistake. The only people who won't show up, we don't want anyway. And it isn't going to be that many. None of the people I know who come to Alaska regularly as tourists are going to be offended. I think it may actuall make for a good advertising campaign in NRA and hunting and fishing magazines - "tell the Friends of Animals to stick their boycott of the Land of the Midnight Sun someplace where the sun never shines - visit Alaska this summer."

The real problem with wolf control is that not many people understand the issue, especially in Anchorage. It is the tryanny of the majority, and an ignorant majority at that.

As a Montanan dealing with the dreadlocked maggotry that slimes its way here from coastal urban areas, this thread sounds terribly familiar!

Sorry to hear of your plight, guys. It's a condition shared now by most of us in the rural West to one degree or another, but the ugly side is that no one at the Federal level gives a happy rat's ass what us "yahoos" up the woods think.

No, I don't have a solution but many "feel good" remedies come to mind, huh?

All the best,

Redial

the results are in! - from the Anchorage Daily News, the results - as far as folks from Conneticut getting involved with wolves in Alaska, I will limit my say to this: stay in your own state and stick to your issues - KMule

Well, guys. It's about time. I'm just surprised that legalities didn't go thru the Federal judicial system. I'm not worried in the least about a bunch granola munching, bunny huggers not exposing their noses this next summer. Bear in Fairbanks

Bear, we all know its not done, it will go appeals. Personnally I'm happy as hell. I hope they do boycott the state. I dont know what I would do to be able to drive anywhere in the summer without following a caravan of RV's doing 30mph. Imagine going fishing in soldotna and actually getting there in 2 hours. Bring on the boycott.

Bearhunt'r
I feel for ya man. Atleast in anchorage we have different routes we could take to get through town. You always gotta deal with the sterling. Hopefully in the next couple of months we plan on moving down by you (sterling, soldotna area) and I'll be playing the same game. I'll pay that price to get the hell out of anchorage

Back to the boycott. I guess a few years ago, this same group got ahold of Sen murkowski and said they would boycott if he didnt step in and stop the hunt. He said by letter that he would round up wolves and send them back to the lower 48 so they can deal with them. No one is admitting that this happened but I hope it did and I hope frank sticks to it.