The Alaska Wildlife Alliance has filed a lawsuit against the Board of Game and the Department of Fish and Game because they culled 99 bears and 5 wolves to protect caribou without allegedly properly consulting experts and the public.
The bears and wolves were hunted from helicopters and planes over a period of 19 days in May and June 2023. The reason? The Alaska Department of Fish and Game state that the communities in the Alaskan region near the Mulchatna River, in the south of the state, rely on a good population of caribou. I presume that this means that the residents in the area hunt caribou as part of their living and if the bears and the wolves are killing them, they are taking away a part of their livelihood.
The culling of the wolves and bears is therefore a human-centric activity and of course diametrically opposed to conservation. It is another example of how humankind ultimately exploits and destroys nature.
Critics of the cull argued that there is no evidence that killing the bears will have the desired effect in any case. Reports on news media online have described the killings as the “Mulchatna massacre”.
The Times reports that retired wildlife scientists in Alaska have written an article which has been published in the Anchorage Daily News which states that there is only “weak scientific support” for the killing of bears. They also state that the culling had “unrealistic” goals and that it was unlikely to increase Caribou numbers.
On that basis, we are drawn to the conclusion that this was an unnecessary killing of 104 iconic wild species, in the wild speculation that it might protect some caribou but is unlikely to do so.
What do you think about that? It seems to be a very bad decision by the people charged with conservation in the state of Alaska namely the Board of Game and the Department of Fish and Game.
However, when I read about these government conservation agencies in North America, I sense very clearly that they are managed by people who do not see the ugly side of sport hunting. Perhaps some of them are sport hunters themselves. They appear to me to be the kind of person who would state that sport hunting aids in conservation. I don’t think these people are true conservationists. They are two human-centric by which I mean to concerned with the human are not concerned enough with the protection of wild species.
