Sad News for Alaska's Wolves

By Rodger Schlickeisen

I have some sad news. Unfortunately, Alaska voters defeated a ballot initiative yesterday that would have ended the state's brutal aerial hunting program.

Thousands of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund supporters gave invaluable support to this important campaign, but in the end, deep-pocketed special interests carried the day.

This morning, I spoke with Nick Jans, co-chair of Alaskans for Wildlife, our grassroots partners in The Last Frontier who spearheaded the state ballot initiative to end Alaska's brutal aerial hunting program. He wanted me to pass on this message to you:

"I want to thank Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund supporters for their help in this hard-fought campaign.

"We faced an approximately $750,000 campaign from our opponents -- including Safari Club International and a $400,000 state-funded campaign approved by Governor Sarah Palin and the Alaska legislature. They used deceptive propaganda and the authority of the Alaska government to defeat the ballot initiative.

"But thanks to the generous support of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund activists and donors, we were able to reach thousands of voters. Yesterday, over 75,000 Alaskans voted to end this barbaric practice.

"Despite this loss, we're not giving up -- Alaskans for Wildlife will continue to hold the state Board of Game's feet to the fire and redouble our efforts to end this brutal program."

Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund will continue to partner with groups like Alaskans for Wildlife and our sister organization Defenders of Wildlife to end Alaska's slaughter from the skies.

As we prepare for another bloody season of aerial hunting in Alaska, we are redoubling our efforts to pass the Protect America's Wildlife (PAW) Act in Washington, DC to bring an end to Alaska's aerial hunting program -- and prevent programs like it from spreading to places like the Greater Yellowstone region.

This bill already has strong bipartisan support in the House of Representatives -- now we must ensure that this important bill gets passed.

Please take a moment to write to your Representative in Washington, DC and urge him or her to support this important wildlife-saving legislation today.

Once again, thank you for your support in this important campaign. Together, we'll continue to fight for sensible wildlife management -- and end the senseless slaughter of wolves by airborne hunters.