Predator control issues has the Alaskan Game Board in the middle of a war between hunters and animal lovers.

Hard-core hunters, animal lovers and the factions in between are at war this week in downtown Anchorage as the state board that decides Alaska's hunting rules returns to an ever-raging debate: predator control.

The Board of Game, which began work Friday, is meeting all week to decide on more than 240 proposals that would change where and how animals are hunted across Alaska.

Get a load of some of these "proposals":

• Allowing private hunters to use helicopters to land in hard-to-reach areas across Cook Inlet and trap black bears in snares.
• Boosting brown bear hunting in Chugach State Park -- at least partly to keep them from wandering into nearby Anchorage. (Look I have talked about our problem with bears before, but opening the protected park area to hunters is definitely not the answer.)
• Renewing some existing wolf-kill programs and creating new ones. (These programs are unnecessarily savage and need to come to an end.)
• Giving the state new predator control options in the future, such as shooting wolves from helicopters, or using poison gas in dens on orphaned pups too young to survive on their own.

I cannot believe that anybody would seriously suggest gassing wolf cubs in their den, what kind of Nazi prick came up with that kind of idea?

Doug Carney lives in the Kuskokwim River village of Sleetmute. The chairman of an area advisory council, he came to Anchorage to ask the board to renew a wolf-kill program that's aimed at boosting moose numbers, and said people who oppose the programs are "too far removed from their food supply."

"I don't hate wolves. Wolves are just land sharks -- they kill anything," he said.

I think I may have some insight into what kind of prick would come up with the whole gassing wolf cubs idea. Besides how can this idiot compare wolves to sharks? Wolves typically kill the sick and injured herd animals helping to ensure the health of the rest of the herd. Sharks will attack anything that splashes but will not eat it if it is not food. I think this guy's statement shows a lack of understanding about BOTH creatures.

Rod Arno is executive director of the Alaska Outdoor Council, a 10,000-member sportsmen's group. Those snares, and helicopter access to the area, are necessary to curb bear numbers and give moose a better chance of survival, he said.

In January, a dozen former Game Board members wrote Palin, calling for more diversity on the panel. (Let me guess, she didn't respond? Or she sided with the current board? Yeah I thought so.)

Asked whether the board is too sympathetic to sport-hunters, Arno said no. It doesn't make sense to appoint people representing, say, wildlife viewers to a board that regulates hunting rules, he said.

"It'd be like having a board of doctors and you had two of them that didn't believe in modern medicine," he said.

This is a ridiculous analogy. A better analogy would be to bring in a different kind of doctor when the room full of gynecologists have failed to solve the patients erectile dysfunction problem.

Besides this whole thing is a sham. It has nothing to do with protecting the moose, and caribou herds. It is ALL about making sure there is enough trophy animals for the big white hunters to shoot for sport so that they feel like men. And if you don't believe that then pay close attention to this next portion of this article.

John W. Andrew is from the Kuskokwim village of Kwethluk, a Yup'ik community of 700 about 12 miles from Bethel. Moose hunting has been on hold in the region for the past five years and now it's time to start hunting again, he said.

Like many in Western Alaska, Andrew said the village saw a tough year of high heating fuel prices and a missed fuel barge.

"We're hoping that they give us a (moose) season out there, because our people are hurting out there," Andrew said.

Did you get that? Not only do we kill the natural predators to keep more trophies for the white man, we also restrict the native subsistence hunters from having access for the same goddamn reason. The native Alaskans don't give a shit about the size of the rack or the number of points on the antlers, they are just trying to feed their families and survive the winter! How dare we cause them hardship just so rich urban hunters can fill their walls with animal heads and throw a couple of bear skin rugs on the floor to impress their drinking buddies.

The Alaska Game Board is a joke! And it is well past time to shake it up and get some new perspectives on the table. I suggest some native leaders and a few conservationists for a start.