Please find the attached announcement calling for comments regarding the Board of Game’s intention of making aerial shooting and snowmobile hunting of wolves legal until 2010.  Please DO NOT HESITATE to call me with any questions.  415.305.8633 cel, Thank you SO much for providing a voice of help for the animals!, Melissa

 Please stress to people that comments should be:

1. Have a professional and credible tone
2. include they are “opposed to Proposals 162, 263,164,165,166”
3. briefly explain why
4. advise the Board they will promote a boycott of Alaskan tourism until this is stopped.

 People are going to be very upset again over this and some may want to tell the Board off.  This will not help.  We want to maintain the integrity of our movement to stop this horrific treatment of the wild wolves in our country. 

Some examples of why people are opposed can be:

1. shaming our country
2. it’s wrong to kill predators so more people can kill their prey

 etc. 

Below is some background information you can use:

 Alaskan Wolves Under Deadly Aerial Attack
Urge the Alaska Board of Game to “OPPOSE PROPOSALS 162 - 166”

Next month, the Alaska Board of Game plans to make permanent their existing wolf control program by issuing public aerial shooting or public land and shoot permits, as well as allow the use of snowmobiles as legal methods to pursue and kill wolves.  The aerial permits will allow as many as 157 gunners and pilots to take part in the wolf reduction scheme aimed to boost moose populations. They do this by pursuing the helpless wolves to exhaustion and then shooting them. Having already exterminated nearly 450 wolves under airborne hunting permits since 2003, Alaska officials are now aiming for an additional 400 kills this season. If the proposals are passed, the Board's commissioner can legally order this slaughter to take place every year until 2010.

 Even though Alaskans have already voted to ban aerial gunning of wolves twice (in 1996 and 2000), Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski refuses to respect the people's will, saying, "We've got a state to manage and a game population to manage, and we've got to do it not on a basis of emotion but on a basis of sound science." However, to claim that big game hunters can scientifically "manage" wildlife populations by shooting top predators from airplanes is patently ridiculous. "If successful," says the Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game proposal, "the continuation of predator (wolf) control efforts will allow prey populations to increase, and provide more animals for future harvest by hunters."   

With the killing methods set to become official in a matter of weeks, IDA is joining forces with Friends of Animals (FOA) on their "I'd rather be here than in Alaska" travel boycott campaign. Together we are urging people all over the world to avoid traveling to Alaska until the Government stops managing our public lands as playgrounds for state-sponsored murderers. We strongly urge environmentalists and animal advocates to help remedy this travesty of justice by casting their financial vote collectively against it.
 
FOA's past tourism boycotts have been very effective. Their campaign in the 1990s was crucial to stopping the aerial gunning of wolves in the first place. They were only recently forced to renew the boycott after the Board of Game started issuing permits for the slaughter. In January of this year, FOA filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against the Board for violating their own rules and regulations, and the judge ordered them to stop issuing permits. At an emergency meeting after the ruling, the Board of Game betrayed the animals and mocked the rule of law by inventing new rules that conveniently give those in power the authority to issue aerial gunning permits again. In addition to rejecting and invalidating the decision of a legal court of law, the Board decided it would be best not to tell the public about the plan or accept comments on their wolf eradication program. 

 What You Can Do: 

Right now happens to be the best time of all to make your voice heard loud and clear. Key representatives from Alaska state and federal agencies will be attending a major meeting soon that will be covered heavily in the media. Everyone present will be exposed to the public's comments, including threats to Alaska's lucrative tourism industry, which is largely supported by ecologically conscious nature lovers who oppose the exploitation of and lethal control methods of wild animals and interference with their habitats.

Please fax the Alaska Board of Game a concise letter stating that you:

1. Oppose proposals 162, 163, 164, 165, 166
2. Explain why you believe aerial gunning of wolves is wrong.  Please remember to be concise. 
3. That if one or all of the proposals passes, you will join the "I'd rather be here than in Alaska" travel boycott campaign against the state.

 In order to make your comments as credible as possible, please remember to be polite and professional.

 Fax your letter to: (907) 465-6094. Also please call Claire in the Boards Support Section at (907) 465-4110 to confirm receipt of your fax. Please send your fax BEFORE 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 24th to ensure it is included in the Board workbook. Also ensure that your fax is legible and written on 8½" by 11" letter-sized paper with ample margins on all sides to allow for binding. 

 You may still submit your comments after February 24th via fax or mail, but you must send them by March 9th, 2006 for them to be considered.

 Attn: Board of Game Comments
Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game
Boards Support Section
P.O. Box 25526
Juneau, AK 98802-5526

 For more information, contact Melissa Gonzalez, Campaign Program Coordinator, 415.388.9641 ext.228, Melissa@idausa.org