Actress Ashley Judd is slamming Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin for allowing the aerial killing of wolves in Alaska. Read about it below. The video of Judd’s commercial is also below.

Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd is another one of those actresses with a cause and a bully pulpit to use for hitting people over the head with whatever cause she’s interested in this week. The actress has taken up the cause of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund which opposes thinning herds to protect other species. The practice of thinning out herds of predators has been practiced for generations in one way or the other. In the case of wild packs of wolves in Alaska, it is used to protect the caribou and moose.

The federal code that permits the practice states that licensed individuals can obtain permits to shoot from an aircraft for the sake of protecting ‘land, water, wildlife, livestock, domesticated animals, human life, or crops.’ This applies to wolves, coyotes and foxes as well as other predators and applies to most states, especially our Western states. In Alaska, aerial wolf hunting has been permitted since 2003 in selected areas where moose and caribou populations are threatened with becoming endangered species.

In other words, its a federal law which the governor of a state would not have a great deal of influence over. Also, its a way of life for Alaskans, and other people in other parts of the country.

However, as we saw in the Presidential campaign, liberal women have absolutely NO tolerance for a strong woman who does not agree with them on every issue and will do all they can to make themselves feel superior to her. I do believe, they’d love to bring her down so they can feel better about their pampered, privileged lives. Maybe bringing someone like Sarah Palin down would allow them to go back into their fantasy that THEY are the strong ones, not normal American women who tough it out in the real world every day. But I digress.

The ad, of course, is misleading and completely ignores the reasons for, the facts and the history of thinning herds. Instead, it depends on an emotional portrayal of the wolves being slaughtered.‘Using a low-flying plane, they kill in winter when there is no chance for the wolves to escape.’ There are visuals of the wolves suffering and the worse pictures of Sarah Palin they can find. Just for good effect, they enhance the photos for that extra special evil look. Lighting and shadow can do a lot to a photo.

There are omissions as to why some things are done differently in Alaska than it might be done in … say … Hollywood. For instance, Judd mentions Palin offering a bounty for the foreleg of wolves as an incentive for more hunting. Implying that Palin is just a blood thirsty devil. Here’s the reason for the bounty that Judd forgot to mention.

The state is offering incentives for people who kill wolves in an effort to boost Alaska’s predator control program, which so far has failed to meet expected numbers.

“Several factors have led to a low wolf take this winter, so we’re going to step up our efforts to meet the annual objectives in this important program,” Commissioner Denby Lloyd with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in a statement Wednesday.

The program, now in its fourth year and operating in five areas of the state, is designed to increase moose and caribou numbers by reducing the number of predators.

The incentives include offering 180 volunteer pilots and aerial gunners $150 in cash for turning in legs of freshly killed wolves, Gov. Sarah Palin’s office announced Tuesday.

The state will use the left forelegs of wolves as biological specimens, which can help biologists determine wolf age and will assist the program in the future, Lloyd said. [...]

The Palin administration is anteing up cash because the number of wolf kills this winter is behind schedule. State biologists wanted 382 to 664 wolves killed by the time the snow that helps with tracking disappears this spring. The predator-control season ends April 30.

As of Tuesday morning, 98 wolves had been killed by aerial gunners, hunters and trappers

Newsbusters notes that this is apparently not so much about wolves as it is about politics. They won the election, but they just can’t stand Sarah Palin. Actually, they can’t stand what she represents, which is strong American woman. That would be US.

From their website:

“Sarah Palin isn’t fading into the background, so neither are we,” commented Defenders Action Fund President Rodger Schlickeisen. “Given her known political aspirations, the American public deserves to know what she’s doing in Alaska, and about her extreme anti-conservation policies. The list is long, and we will document it all, from her continued promotion of the aerial slaughter of wolves and bears, to her lawsuit to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, even as the sea ice melts beneath it.”

I don’t begrudge these hollywood types having their opinions, but I admit that it gets a little old listening to them when they have gotten so out of touch with the realities of life. Still, I do understand that when their lives are about pretending to be other people for the entertainment of the masses, they probably need to have something in their lives to make them feel like they actually matter. They aren’t heroes, they just play them on TV.

I suppose that’s why so many hollywood people have to get involved, verbally at least, in causes that they barely understand. It probably makes them feel better for spending a hundred thousand dollars on a pocketbook while people are starving in the world.