In 2015, a ban on certain types of aggressive sport hunting practices was implemented in Alaska – limiting the ways in which certain animals could be killed within federal wildlife preserves. This included a ban on the cruel practice of drawing mother animals out of their dens using food, only to shoot their babies as they slept in their dens. Supporters of the ban were relieved that this archaic and undeniably cruel practice had finally been put to an end.
Three years later, in May 2018, The Trump Administration threatened to roll back this important prohibition to, once again, allow bear and wolf cubs to be slaughtered in their dens, along with opening the door to reintroduce other aggressive hunting techniques. Last week, the rollback became a reality, to the delight of hunters and the dismay of animal lovers across the United States.
The move went ahead despite opposition by thousands of people across the country, including around 7,000 Born Free USA supporters who submitted a formal comment against the plans. The new rule, nullifying the prior ban, will come into effect in the first week of July 2020.
While supporters of the cruel decision argue that this is leveling the playing field by standardizing hunting rules across the state, and that hunting in this way is part of legitimate “wildlife management,” Born Free USA strongly disagrees.
As our CEO, Angela Grimes, says:
“The cruelty of luring a protective mother away from her cubs with the specific intent of killing her babies in their den is reprehensible. But, aside from the obvious cruelty, there is no conservation benefit to the killing of natural predators in federal preserves. Each native species living in their natural environment serves an important ecological purpose and helps to maintain equilibrium. We believe that the real reason behind the new ruling is to diminish natural predation in order to increase populations of caribou and other prey animals so that recreational and commercial hunting can prosper. In effect, the new rule amounts to killing in order to facilitate further killing.”
Born Free USA believes that federal wildlife preserves should be at the forefront of protecting wildlife and we will continue to challenge efforts, such as these, to weaken and roll back vital legal protection for vulnerable animals.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Liz
