Why isn't MORE being said -

[shais_mom]

But they weren't killing in self defense. They were deliberately hunting them to kill them.

You are right. Animals aren't the same as people. In some cases they are a higher life form. Like Mark Twain said: man is the only animal that blushes, or has a need to.

But if something was threatening my liveliehood then you bet I would defend it and them hunting the wolves that are killing the caribou and I can just about bet money that if they are killing caribou then they are also killing sheep and horses and cattle as well then in that case - it is the farmer/rancher's self defense.

[Karen]

But if something was threatening my liveliehood then you bet I would defend it and them hunting the wolves that are killing the caribou and I can just about bet money that if they are killing caribou then they are also killing sheep and horses and cattle as well then in that case - it is the farmer/rancher's self defense.

http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/wolves_what_food.htm

A good article on what wolves eat in Alaska - and neither sheep, horses, nor cattle are included. Just FYI.

We have messed up the ecosystem a whole lot, in my opinion. We drove the wolf to near extinction in much of the Eastern portion of the Northern US - and now have out-of-control deer populations. Sure, no one wants to kill Bambi, so they kill of its predators, but do they want to see forests depleted, and "Bambi" dying of starvation by the side of the highway, licking salt from the road?

I am not making that up. I have seen that, driving through upstate NY as a child. Carcasses of starved deer frozen onto the hillside, a live on here or there, just skin and bones, and you could see into the woods because there was no underbrush - the deer had eaten it all ...

We should NOT mess with the wolves in Alaska any more than we should have down here. IMHO.