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 Persecution and HuntingWolves, Wild Dogs and Foxes: Page 5 Aerial hunting of wolves was carried out for decades in Alaska by private parties and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game itself. Prior to 1972, wolves could be hunted from airplanes for sport, or by state predator-control agents. Federal legislation was enacted in that year to ban such hunting, with high penalties including confiscation of aircraft, large fines and even jail terms. In fact, Director of Wildlife Conservation David Kelleyhouse, known as "Machine Gun Kelleyhouse," suggested that the best way to control wolves was to machine-gun them. In 1991, a state law was passed in Alaska that allowed shooting of wolves if the aircraft landed 330 feet away from the animals. This legislation was virtually impossible to enforce. Many hunters flew over wolf packs, hazing them until the wolves were too exhausted to escape. Then they would land and kill the wolves. The law failed to protect wolves from this type of harassment and killing. Among the misuses alleged were trappers checking their trap lines by flying from one set to another, and killing wolves and other predators they saw. Another common practice that was targeted was the "recreational" aerial hunting of wolves. Conservationists in Alaska began a petition campaign to change the law through voter ballot referendum for the November 1996 national election, having failed to persuade the legislature to enact a stricter law. This ballot was openly opposed by many members of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who were then chastised for this lobbying by the Governor. The ballot was voted into law by the Alaskan public. The new law states that no one who flies an aircraft to an area and lands, may shoot a Gray Wolf, fox, Lynx or Wolverine on the ground the same day. This closed the loophole left by the previous law.
Wolf hunting is carried out by snowmobilers in many parts of Alaska. Brenda Peterson, an eyewitness to one of these hunts, described it, and photos taken of the event documented the wolves being chased into a tight group and killed (McIntyre 1995). Six black wolves, an entire family, died "splayfooted against one another," having run for their lives at a gallop of 35 miles per hour as the snowmobilers herded them into a terrified, dense mass, and then shot them at point-blank range (McIntyre 1995).
The total kill of wolves by hunters and trappers in Alaska in recent years has declined from 1,600 taken in the winter 1993 to 1994 to 1,180 taken in 1995 to 1996, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. With a total wolf population in the state in late 1995 estimated at about 7,000, the kill represents 17 percent of the total population. This is probably threatening some populations. One race of Alaskan wolves, the Alexander Archipelago Wolf (Canis lupus ligoni), an extremely rare subspecies, resides in the heavily logged Tongass National Forest. In spite of various threats, the US Department of the Interior has refused to list the wolf on the US Endangered Species Act (see Forests chapter).
Within the past few decades, wolves have again become resident in several western states. Beginning in the 1970s, a few Gray Wolves crossed the border from Canada into Montana's Glacier National Park where a population of about 100 wolves in 10 packs now lives (Stevens 1997).
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