...wolves are more equal than caribou, says the Humane Society in its endorsement of Barack Obama. The Humane Society Legislative Fund's president writes that the group has never before endorsed a presidential candidate, but Sarah Palin simply poses too great of a threat to animals:
While McCain's positions on animal protection have been lukewarm, his choice of running mate cemented our decision to oppose his ticket. Gov. Sarah Palin's (R-Alaska) retrograde policies on animal welfare and conservation have led to an all-out war on Alaska's wolves and other creatures. Her record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals than any other current governor in the United States.
Palin engineered a campaign of shooting predators from airplanes and helicopters, in order to artificially boost the populations of moose and caribou for trophy hunters. She offered a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf as an economic incentive for pilots and aerial gunners to kill more of the animals, even though Alaska voters had twice approved a ban on the practice. This year, the issue was up again for a vote of the people, and Palin led the fight against it -- in fact, she helped to spend $400,000 of public funds to defeat the initiative.
As noted earlier on the blog, the program Palin supported killed 124 wolves and saved an estimated 1,500 moose and 3,000 caribou. Granted, the program's intent was to provide more caribou and moose to be hunted by Alaskans, but I'm guessing that not all of those 4,500 moose and caribou not killed by wolves were shot by hunters.
Accompanying the endorsement are these Obama and Palin photos:
Given the Humane Society's decision to veer off into PETA territory, I wonder what the group thinks of Obama's admission than he's gone spearfishing.
