Rogue Fact: Palin misleads on aerial hunting

http://mediamatters.org/items/200911140012 In her memoir, Sarah Palin falsely suggests that Alaskans do not engage in the aerial hunting of wolves. In fact, such hunting takes place in Alaska under a program that Palin herself has supported. Palin: Radio host "suggested we get together and hunt from helicopters, which Alaska hunters don't do" On Page 327 of Going Rogue: An American Life, in discussing her phone call with a radio host who was impersonating French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Palin writes: Then Sarkozy started talking about hunting and suggested we get together and hunt from helicopters, which Alaska hunters don't do (despite circulated Photoshopped images of me drawing a bead on a wolf from the air). Fact: Aerial hunting of wolves takes place in Alaska under program supported by Palin Under Alaska law, "the Board of Game may authorize a predator control program as part of a game management plan that involves airborne or same day airborne shooting." On May 19, 2008, the Anchorage Daily News reported that "[p]ilot-gunner teams" had "taken 124 wolves," according to the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation, as part of "a winter program to kill wolves from aircraft," which the Daily News contrasted with "the 97 wolves gunners took last year." In 2007, Palin introduced a bill to "simplify and clarify Alaska's intensive management law for big game and the state's 'same day airborne hunting' law," which she stated would "give the Board of Game and state wildlife managers the tools they need to actively manage important game herds and help thousands of Alaskan families put food on their tables." According to an August 26, 2007, Daily News article (retrieved from the Nexis database), Palin supported "a $400,000 appropriation to educate Alaskans about the aerial shooting of wolves and efforts to reduce bears in some areas."

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