Philosophies and religions the world over share a common desire to achieve some sort of balance with the natural world. Despite this wish, however, most of humanity appears completely and often appallingly unable to coexist with nature on this planet with any semblance of harmony.
This deficiency has been horrifyingly highlighted this past month with a twofold attack on wild animals in Alaska and Arizona.
In Alaska, Gov. Frank Murkowski and the state's official game board have implemented a new wolf "control" program that legalizes hunting wolves via airplane and helicopter. It also increases the number of wolves that can be shot by any individual -- in one district the increase is from 10 wolves per year to 10 wolves per day.
In the lower 48 states, wolves are protected by the Endangered Species Act. But not so in Alaska, where approximately 7,000 to 9,000 wolves roam today. The new hunting regulations call for an 80 percent reduction in the wolf population.
One would hope that there was due cause for the legalization of such savagery -- perhaps wolves snatching infants out of their cribs or chasing grandmothers down the streets of Anchorage. But, alas, no.
Hunters in Alaska want more moose heads on their walls. Wolves compete with hunters for this valuable prize. So, instead of regulating the moose hunt with maintainable limitations, Alaska's officials have decided to just kill off the competition.
I can't wait to see the next winter Olympics in our great northern state -- if a Russian ski jumper looks like he may get in the way of our local boys, well then just chase him around in a plane until he is too tired to move before firing the death shot.
What's next? Tracking down wolves in fully equipped military tanks? Deploying armed guards into the forest? This is not sport. Sport implies competition. This is a disgusting, unjustifiable and unprovoked attack on a wild animal.
While the hunters of Alaska are firing at the enemy from the protected confines of their aircraft, Arizona is stirring up its own trouble on the wild animal front.
Sabino Canyon, in the Coronado National Forest near Tucson, is a popular recreation area for families. The canyon has a healthy population of mountain lions who lately have been displaying behaviors dubbed "aggressive" by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
No one has been attacked, of course, but there are unconfirmed reports of stalking and a few instances where the lions have not backed away from people quickly enough. This was enough for the Game and Fish Department to declare the lions a "threat to human safety" and issue a shoot-to-kill order for the lions.
Thankfully, the death sentence was reversed on March 19, and the new plan is for the lions to be removed and placed in a private rehabilitation facility (such as Keepers of the Wild near Kingman). This is a victory of sorts, but the cougars are still sentenced to life imprisonment for being, well, cougars and choosing to dwell near humans.
As an avid hiker and backpacker, I have always accepted the risk of having a close encounter of the toothy kind while wandering in the forest. Apparently in Arizona, however, natural outdoor areas must be sterilized and void of danger.
The fact that shooting the lions was even considered is horrifying. If people are unable to accept the risks inherent with outdoor activity, then they don't belong outdoors. To kill off wild animals merely because their presence in their home area makes people uncomfortable is ridiculous.
Luckily, at least the Arizona lions will escape this fiasco with their lives, though contained in a reserve so that people venturing into the wilderness can feel "safe." The same cannot be said for the Alaskan wolves, whose death sentence has effectively been signed by Murkowski and the game board.
"Live and let live" doesn't quite fit in these great states. Even in the wilderness, wild animals can no longer find sanctuary. It hasn't occurred to any of the Arizona Game and Fish Department officials that really, it isn't the lions getting too close to people but rather that the people are getting too close to the lions. It hasn't occurred to the fine governor of Alaska that pursuing packs of wolves in a bush plane and mowing them down with a rifle is not traditional wildlife management.
Harmony with nature, an ideal espoused by so many, is an ideal without possibility of realization -- certainly not with the war on wolves raging to the north and the life sentence of the lions being served in our home state.
Katie Kelberlau is a religious studies and history junior. Reach her at katherine.kelberlau@asu.edu.
