Wolf-kill foes stage protests across country

By The Associated Press

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ANCHORAGE — Animal-rights activists were taking advantage of the post-Christmas shopping in New York this weekend to hand out pamphlets calling for a tourism boycott of Alaska.

Friends of Animals members are angry about a decision by Gov. Frank Murkowski to allow aerial wolf hunts in the McGrath area in central Alaska.

"Save a wolf. Sign a postcard. Boycott Alaska," Friends of Animals worker Bob Orabona called out to the crowd rushing past Rockefeller Center.

Orabona held a sign depicting a howling wolf with a crosshair drawn over its chest. "Alaska is planning a heart-stopping wildlife spectacle," the placard read. "They call it 'management.' We call it murder."

The Connecticut-based animal-rights organization is staging 32 such demonstrations around the country to protest Alaska's wolf-control plan, which calls for shooting about 40 wolves in the McGrath area with the help of aircraft.

Wolf-control advocates in Alaska say the wolves have grown too plentiful in some areas and are killing too many moose that human hunters rely on for food.

"Certainly, shooting wolves to make moose hunting easier lacks any kind of justice," Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, told the Anchorage Daily News.

The group printed 50,000 postcards addressed to Murkowski, warning of a boycott and calling the lethal program unethical and disgraceful.

Feral hopes to mirror the success of a similar protest in 1992 against a wolf-control program supported by then-Gov. Walter J. Hickel.

State officials received more than 100,000 letters and phone calls objecting to the plan and finally bowed to the pressure from Alaska's tourism industry.

Murkowski said he's concerned about a tourism boycott but is holding firm. "We think we addressed this in a responsible manner. We have a state to manage and game populations to manage, and we're not going to do it on emotion," he said.

State officials said this protest does not appear to be generating the same steam as the one in 1992. To date, about 15,000 e-mails and 1,000 letters have been received protesting the program.

"So far, it hasn't been anywhere near the same level of interest," said Wayne Regelin, deputy director for the state Wildlife Conservation division.

State officials recall receiving death threats in 1992, and employees were trained to detect mail that could contain explosives. At one point Alaska State Troopers had to provide security at the state Department of Fish and Game.

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