READERS COMMENTS

if someone saw a wolf in a snare, why didn't you cut her loose or help her?
Posted: Jan 28, 2012 clarisselcourcier

wolves are gentle and intelligent animals,and I would join up to take up arms against the ones that kill for profit..........................
Posted: Jan 28, 2012 clarisselcourcier

Dear Jack.

You noted...

"I respect wolves and I have seen a pack of wolves play and I
have shot a wolf. Each time respecting their power and beauty.

You have an interesting way of showing respect. You were so filled with respect for its power and beauty - and you shot it.

Whatever your justification may be for ending its life, at least you can confirm it's NOT hanging on your wall as a "trophy" right?
Posted: Mar 01, 2011 TS

Wow I only read a few of the first comments but the whole concept of hunting and trapping is way over some of you tree huggers heads do a little research of your own before you say your going to go and show these hunting guides and outfitters who happen to be some of the strongest most inshape fearless people I know your martial art skills. I respect wolves and I have seen a pack of wolves play and I have shot a wolf. Each time respecting their power and beauty.
Posted: Feb 27, 2011 Jack

The old STARVATION card being played once again to justify the hunt. These animals have managed to survive and maintain an ecological, natural balance for decades without intervention from humans. Please don't buy into the "I hunt to prevent STARVATION" story, and be smart enough to see through that spin.
Posted: Feb 26, 2011 TS

I am Christian and an American. Like my father, to his father, and family before us; I hunt for food and for the sake of the legacy that is hunting (tradition). Hunting to me is a challenge, it teaches the necessary skills on how to survive on wild meat, and it is a way to take care of the gift the I believe is being taken away from us. The hunting industry glorifies the "trophy" thing too much. I believe in taking care of our remaining resources, game, and fish. Hunting wolves for the sake of food and tradition is one thing, but hunting them for the fun of it or for that trophy mount is a totally different degree. I would love to hunt wolves someday when the I believe that the population has leveled out and there are better regulations, but not today. I would much rather see in fact all of the game and fish species level out again, not just in Alaska but everywhere else as well. I beg to differ that hunting is a sport. Some people might treat it as so, but I do not. Hunting is a part of life. My grandfather once told me that you use a gun for two things: to survive and to eat. That's the way it is for me. Hunting is not a sport, it is a way of life.
Posted: Feb 24, 2011 Tradionalist

So, let me get this straight: The snared alpha female ate dirt and rocks for over a week while its mate and pups sat around and watched? Wouldn't they have tried to bring her some food? I doubt a snared animal could swallow anything. "Disney" is a most correct description.
Posted: Feb 24, 2011 Doubting Thomas

I understand hunting for food within conservation limits, but individuals who get off on just killing for killing's sake like Coke are absolutely sorry. I have known them up in Alaska and they are all insecure about their manhood, and contrary to what the writer said have no real survival skills other than revving up their engine to go faster. Coke and his ilk are cowards. I and many others would love to help him learn to be a man by comparing our martial art skills, but then Coke and Al are just all mouth when it comes to taking on anything that has two legs and a backbone.
Posted: Feb 24, 2011 Mik Jones

i would do the same to coke as he does to the animals
Posted: Feb 24, 2011 brett

Does Candice Berner get a say in this controversy?


Poor, poor wolves. Just like the poor, poor mountain lions of Kalifornia!



This whole presentation (Dogs of War) was presented in a fashion to tug the heart strings of the ignorant and uninformed. Lotsa "kill the trapper" sentiment too ... shame when an animal of any kind is valued more than a human life. Skewed values for sure.
Posted: Jun 25, 2010 Bob, Tx

This is a very sad article to read, after writing an article about the grey wolf last week for my ecology class, and hearing that Haber recently died in a plane crash and now there is no one left to spearhead the campaign for these beautiful animals. I can only imagine the great love and respect he had for the Toklat pack after studying them for almost half a century. I would love to do such extensive research.
While I could never imagine killing an animal, I am not against hunting. I do, however, believe there are limits as to how many animals you should be able to kill during a period of time, etc. I also am against trapping and snaring, because of the creulty of such practices. A kill should be quick - no one should end life in pain. I also think the meat of the animal should not be wasted, nor the pelt or skeleton.
People need to realize the important role wolves play in keeping populations in check. It's not the peoples place to replace wolves in this respect. As well, people simply can not keep caribou/moose/deer populations in check on their own. Wolves are natural hunters, here for a good reason. They should not be hunted. Think of all the car accidents involving cervidae? This is dangerous for humans!
I understand that wolves are not endangered in Alaska, but that does not mean that Wallace and his buddies should lay in wait for these wolves and slaughter them. The thing about wolves is, they're on and off the ESA all the time, being hunted to the brink and put on the list, rebounding, and being taken off - and then the viscious cycle starts again! Why can't we just leave them be?
Studying wolves you realize a pack is like a family. Only a single pair mates and reproduces, all the wolves care for the pups, they cuddle and nuzzle muzzles, and play. They mourn when a family member dies. I swear they are capable of love. We should appreciate the value of their existence as we value our own.
Posted: Oct 17, 2009 Andalora

I was Artist in Residence in Denali a few years back. I stayed at the Murie cabin hoping to photograph wolves for my art. That was not to happen. That was the summer right after Coke killed one of the young and the alpha female of the pack I was hoping to see. Years I waited for this moment. The pack had moved on because of this. In my annual trips to Denali I have only seen one wolf since. The park is not there for a few pricks to trap, it is for everyone. More moose are killed by highway traffic than wolves. So now we have to kill wolves so people can shoot more moose. This is fixing the balance? Can humans be more stupid or bigger scumbags?
Posted: Aug 04, 2009 Eric

Theres another side of the 'coin' here. And I know from experience.
Most of the time when a wolf is caught in a leg hold trap or snared by a leg (which generally does not happen, snares are usually very lethal), they don't expend a lot of effort once they 'know' they are caught,so they lay or sit to avoid any further pain. Now if someone in a airplane starts buzzing and circling for pictures or just getting as close as they can to look at the wolf, this scares and or agitates the wolf, then they will make a very desperate effort to get loose, tearing skin, flesh and or breaking joints. Now visualize the plane flying off, and returning the next day to,, lets say, get better pictures, and lets say before the plane first found the wolf, the wolf was caught, but hadn't 'fought' wildly to get untrapped and it hadn't even torn its skin, and its joints were okay. So when the airplane arrives the next day the wolf is in much worse condition from the previous days 'airplane buzzing', NOW the photographer gets pictures of a wolf with a broken bloody leg highly visible. These are pictures that $ELL, and bring fame to those that show how 'horrible' trapping is. Better yet, buzz the wolf closely for 1/2 hour for 3 or 4 days, then the pictures get 'better and better'. Don't think for a moment some 'people', independent or paid by a organization, have 'morals or ethics' that are far ABOVE those who trap. Its the unspoken calling, the "pot calling the kettle black"!
Posted: Mar 23, 2009 Reece

The fact that man does not interfere with the Denali wildlife is what draws millions every year. It is no coincidence that nature has done such a wonderful job. Once man steps in, all will probably be changed forever-for what-- MONEY.. how sad.
Posted: Feb 17, 2009 Jim Smith

People on the forums know I am considered "anti" wolf by most but I seriously encourage you to rethink how you introduce Ms. Ross's article here. With all due respect and IMHO you do Ms. Ross's excellent piece great disservice with the "...park under siege" in your byline. I read it in the magazine and its actually one of the better articles I've read on wolf controversy when it comes to balance in recent years; and although her conclusions seem invalidly drawn IMHO I personally appreciated her introspective honesty.

Given that: 1)Wolves and no other large mammals are really under siege by any stretch of any rational imagination IN Denali National Park or any National Park for that matter. 2) Wolves are not even remotely endangered in the State of Alaska. 3) You are a publication purportedly bound to dispense not misrepresentation but veracity in your pages...

B) I humbly suggest you leave your editorializing for somewhere much farther down the line than the byline. I have come to like your magazine more and more every time I read it at the Library in recent years, but when it becomes apparent a publisher or editor's kenning is in traction before any substance is presented reason forces me to doubt that some of you are not held hostage to your own emotional preconceptions.

But alas I am not a subscriber. Thank Ms. Ross for her own restraint, I will get a subscription when I relocate in April.

My apologies for the consternation but I know if you truly want your already fine publication to be better you will find it well founded. Thanks for yur time,

John
Posted: Feb 15, 2009 Double Cabin

This Coke guy is sick.
Posted: Feb 12, 2009 Casie & Laura

Let the wolves be. The system of nature far exceeds any invention by human beings.
Posted: Feb 07, 2009 Nicholas

It's funny to the extreme side of anti's and the more balanced view of others. I love the outdoors and nature. I love hunting. There should certainly be laws and penelties against irresponsible trapping. Snares are also more humane than some of the gripping traps. The vast majority of hunters agree with rules and regulations for the sport. Yes, there are idiots in the hunting world just as there are idiot hikers. Balance is the key to everything. We as humans should do our best to keep this balance.
Posted: Feb 03, 2009 rich

I under both side's points.Hunters have the right to hunt and yet the wolves at the same time need protection from being hunted to extention. So why not hunt with a bag limit like on other game along with a park boudary instead of just a park boundary they can go outside of and be killed to extention. Also, I was just horrified at the way they are allowed to trap the wolves. The story of the way the alpha female was captured and allowed to lay there in excruciating pain for two weeks until her death was unbelievable to me. Coke wallace and other hunters have no right to use basically "torture traps" dug in and hung into their flesh of these animals untill they die. These traps should be outlawed immediately by the state legislature. Shooting an animal is one thing; torturing them till death is quite another! These very social and smart creatures feel just as much pain as we do. These types of slow torture till death is no different than what Sadam Hussien did to his helpless victims; How is this any different just because they are animals and not human!
Posted: Feb 03, 2009 Tony Dalon, Roopville GA

One could best say that we, the ignorant humans, fear that which we do not know. And rest assured that most do not even begin to understand of the making of the wolf pack. We so under estimate that of the wolf, their love for one another, the place that they hold in the pack, the bond that holds them and most importantly the roll that was given to the wolf, HUNTER. We could learn a lot from our brother wolf. Every pack member has a place and every member has an importance, a roll to play in the family. The very essence of a wolf pack is family. How many readers out there know that a wolf pack consists of only one mating couple? My guess, only those of us who have taken the time to learn. How many of us know that a wolf holds the key to the ever precious food chain? We have seen time and time again that when we eradicate the top predators, we begin to unravel that which is not our place to control. We throw off the balance of life, the caribou become overpopulated, the native plants fade as the caribou feed on them, and so on down the line. The wolf will not destroy the caribou or the elk! They are there to keep the balance in check, taking out the weak and the sick! It is absolutely ridiculous to even believe that hunting a wolf is okay. There is no need to keep wolf population under control via human intervention, a pack keeps it self in check. If they over hunt the caribou or deer, there is no food, STARVATION occurs. The pack cannot survive. It is high time that we learn more about our environment and our roll in the effects we create when we change anything. Tell Palin to back off and leave the wolves ALONE!
Posted: Jan 30, 2009 Wolf Friend

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