Wolves, grizzly bears and Sarah Palin - oh my...

As you know, Humane Mewsings isn't a partisan blog and my goal isn't to infuse my political beliefs here. As Karen Dawn explained in her book, non-partisan animal advocacy is important and while Democrat voting records are better overall on animal issues, Republicans John Ensign (NV) and Christopher Shays (CT) are exceptional advocates for animals in the political arena.

However, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has an extremely disturbing history on animal issues. Photos of Palin in front of grizzly bear skins and standing at a podium with fur wrapped around her neck is just the beginning.

According to Defenders of Wildlife:

• Gov. Palin is an active promoter of Alaska's aerial hunting program in which wolves and bears are shot from the air or chased by airplanes to the point of exhaustion before the pilot lands the plane and a gunner shoots the animals point blank.
  
• Palin introduced legislation to make it easier to kill wolves and bears and would have also removed the initiative against aerial hunting from the ballot.
• She has opposed listing the polar bear on the Endangered Species List because she said it might hurt the state's oil-dependent economy, even though top marine mammal biologists agreed with federal scientists that it should be listed.
• Palin is a strong supporter of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is home to hundreds of thousands of caribou who use it as a calving ground, more than a million migratory birds, and countless other wildlife.

On the other side, Democratic VP nominee Sen. Joe Biden has been a longtime friend of animals in the Senate. According to the Humane Society Legislative Fund, in the current session of Congress Sen. Biden co-sponsored measures to stop horse slaughter, upgrade penalties for animal fighting, ban the possession of fighting dogs and call on Canada to end its brutal baby seal hunt.

This is a prime opportunity to bring animal issues into the election dialog and make it known that candidates' stances on animals tells a great deal about their moral standing. After all, as Karen Dawn explained in her recent newsletter, a cavalier attitude towards the slaughter of animals and decimation of species is unacceptable. I couldn't agree more.