Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Killing wolves


After 8 years of Bush's poor environmental work and standards, most green activists hoped Obama would an "evironmental superhero"....but has he been? He's been better than Bush but not perfect so far. Obama has neglected to outlaw the horrible practice of wolf hunting in the west. Hunting any animal is horrible enough, but hunting predators is even worse. It completely throws off the eco system--(predator populations controll themselves) . Wolves have a very complex family social structure, so if you kill an alpha wolf the whole pack will suffer. Also wolves are very easy to hunt because they live in packs, so its not much of a sport/skill to shoot one--its just evil. And contrary to popular belief wolves do not kill humans "There has never been a confirmed case of a healthy, wild wolf killing a human being in North America.". go to http://www.livingwithwolves.org/index.html for for wolf info. To check out Obama's action regarding other environmental issues go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/04/one-year-later-obamas-mos_n_344511.html?slidenumber=FXh2daZW24o%3D#slide_image

13 comments:

Lizzy said...

I completely agree that more things need to be done to help these animals and many others. Just because Obama is doing a better job than Bush in this regard, it doesn't mean that there isn't more he could be doing.

The new Kevin (a.k.a Kevin Kwan) said...

I disagree with your views on hunting, but of course, the issue is about what Obama would do about it.

Obama has a million things on his to-do list, and stopping hunting is not his highest priority right now. If he focused on wolves instead of on issues like healthcare, he's going to be lampooned as a useless president (if it hasn't happened already).

Dana said...

Definitely there needs to be some legislation to stop the unjust killing of wolves. This reminded me of the slaughtering of baby seals that happens every year in Canada. It's so heartless to continue to allow the killing of harmless animals.

"Last year, the world looked on in horror as the Canadian government permitted the slaughter of more than 330,000 harp seals. During the hunt, baby seals are shot or repeatedly clubbed."
http://www.peta.org/feat-canadaSealHunt.asp

Unlike in Canada where they kill to sell the fur of the seals, killing of wolves does nothing to benefit our economy.

PH(OE)BE said...

I get where Kevin is coming from. I'm sure outlawing wolf-hunting isn't (and arguably shouldn't be) on the top of Obama's list at the moment. However, I still would love to see something get done about this in the near. Slaughtering any animal is in this fashion is wrong. Right now, there are a number of wolf species on the endangered list. For example, the Grey and Red wolf species are close to extinct due to excessive hunting. As an animal lover, this scares me :(

PH(OE)BE said...

*near future

Colin Yan said...

Yes, i agree with both kevin and phoebe. Obama is a very busy man since Bush left him with a very tough situation. He is probably trying is hardest, so it sucks to see that his approval rating is going down so far.

I agree that even though its not his highest priority, he should sitll do something. Not only should the president, but all other poeple should recognize this problem of killing wolves.

Our ecosystem is already under attack by various pollution and human activities.

Serena said...

I agree. Eventhough Bush left Obama with various tough situations after he left office, he should still be doing something to put an end to the unjust killing of wolves. True, there may be more important priorities on his list, but action needs to be taken to end this type of animal treatment.

Lily Y said...

Well, presidential approval ratings always seems to go down..
Not just wolves but any other animals that were hunted would greatly affect the ecosystem. Eliminating the prey would kill off all the rest of the predators.

Emily said...

Although, I do feel sad reading about hunting wolves who do not hurt people and the outcomes for the ecosystem...Obama cannot be Superman ..no matter how hard he tried. It is impossible to please all of the people in the U.S. (talking about whether hunting should be his first priority.)

In Georgia's recent post, there has been a nasty riot/protest against Obama's healthcare reform and these Republicans most likely don't even have wolf hunting on their minds right now. But of course when the time is right more should be done. Issues like this as well as things like Darfur and Global warming do not have much of a direct impact on us, and therefore we don't have enough strong feelings about it to bring change.

If people really do have a strong desire to change the hunting of wolves then we should all do something too and not be so dependent on one person.

prestonchan said...

This kind of reminds me of the time when the wolves in Yosemite were killed because they were thought to be detrimental to the ecosystem.... except that I do not really see a reason to hunt wolves in this scenario. Is it really that fun to hunt a wolf? In the situation at Yosemite a few decades, I can see why they would encourage wolf killing- they used to attack hikers and kill farm animals in the surrounding farmland. However, I remember that wolves were reintroduced into Yosemite after the elk population skyrocketed and was detrimental to many of the plant species in Yosemite. We should really learn from this past experience... but that's only if people hunt wolves because they think they're bad for the environment or just in general. However, if people hunt wolves just for the hell of it, I don't really know what to say. The human race is a cruel species.

Rachel BH said...

I have been doing research on the Greenpeace interest group for our election project, and they agree with this. There are other animals that are not being protected by the Obama adminitstration, such as blue fin tuna and striped seals. These animals cannot speak for themselves, and it is up to our government to protect them.

Jodi Miller said...

While I agree that Obama should try to do something about protecting endangered species (because I'm a tree-hugging Californian), I agree with what Emily said. He's not Superman. No one is perfect, and right now Obama is trying to please everyone because he wants to change America. He probably intends to do something about this in the future, but right now the lives of the American People are a little higher on his list of priorities.

Alexandra Kor said...

I don't understand how hunting and killing an animal can be so fun. It's just wrong. I guess people don't see the repercussions it has on the environment.. which is why there is global warming, for that matter.