Group plans Lansing protest to stop wolf killing in Alaska
‘Howl-ins’ meant to target tourism in state
BY MARY PEMBERTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An animal rights group plans “howl-ins” in Lansing
and other cities the weekend after Christmas to protest a predator control
program allowing wolves to be shot from airplanes in Alaska.
Using the Internet to spread the word, Friends of Animals is making plans
for protests Dec. 27-28. Other locations include New York; San Francisco
and Sacramento, Calif., and Colorado Springs, Colo.
On Tuesday, Priscilla Feral, president of the group, said the response
from wolf advocates to launch a protest targeting Alaska’s $2-billion
tourism business has been enthusiastic.
“They are saying Alaska’s state-sponsored wolf shooting program is a
national disgrace and an ethical outrage,” she said.
More protests will be held on following weekends in dozens of cities,
Feral said.
Protesters will be handed postcards to send to Alaska Gov. Frank
Murkowski, saying they won’t choose the state as a tourist destination as
long as it insists on going forward with its wolf-killing program.
Thirty-thousand postcards have been printed so far, she said.
The Darien, Conn.-based group, which has 200,000 members, was responsible
for a successful tourism boycott about a decade ago that resulted in
then-Gov. Walter J. Hickel imposing a moratorium on wolf control. The
group held howl-ins in 51 cities around the country. Something similar is
planned this time around, she said.
“If the tourism boycott needs to go forward, we’re organizing for it,” she
said.
Feral said the group hopes to hold at least one protest in each state.
Tourism, oil and fishing are the top three engines driving the Alaska
economy, said Odin Brudie, tourism planner for the state Department of
Community and Economic Development.
The state wants to kill wolves in approximately a 1,700-square-mile area
near the town of McGrath, where residents have long-complained that bears
and wolves are eating too many moose. McGrath is off the road system and
the nearest large supermarkets are 300 air miles away.
The predator control program began this spring with the relocation of 75
black bears and eight grizzlies.
The next phase of the program calls for killing about 40 wolves. Those
wolves would be killed now, while there is enough daylight to track the
them and in late winter when conditions improve again. Moose calves are
most vulnerable to being eaten by wolves in winter.