Sarah Palin vs. Ashley Judd: It's a Catfight Over Big Dogs

Environmentalist Group Attacks Sarah Palin and Her Policies

According to Reuters news agency, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who cannot seem to stay out of the spotlight (either jumping into it or being dragged back into it), is being targeted by the Washington-based Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which contends that she is attempting to expand the program in her state that allows for the killing of wolves. Actress Ashley Judd narrated a particularly graphic video that casts the governor in a bad light, claiming that Sarah Palin has offered a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of any wolf killed.

Ashley Judd says in the video that, as a vice-presidential candidate, people had no idea that Palin championed the "brutal aerial killing of wolves. Now," the narration continues, "back in Alaska, Palin is again casting aside science and championing the slaughter of wildlife." On their website, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund accuses the governor of planning to initiate legislation to expand the program "by removing the few remaining scientific requirements from the program."

This is a not-so-veiled direct attack not only on Sarah Palin's perceived anti-environmentalist and pro-hunter policies (she is an avid hunter and fisher) but also on her fundamentalist religious beliefs.

But Sarah Palin wasted no time firing back. She issued the following statement:

"It is reprehensible and hypocritical that the Defenders of Wildlife would use Alaska and my administration as a fund raising tool to deceive Americans into parting with their hard-earned money."

"The ad campaign by this extreme fringe group, as Alaskans have witnessed over the last several years, distorts the facts about Alaska's wildlife management programs. Alaskans depend on wildlife for food and cultural practices which can't be sustained when predators are allowed to decimate moose and caribou populations. Our predator control programs are scientific and successful at protecting vulnerable wildlife. These audacious fund raising attempts misrepresent what goes on in Alaska, and I encourage people to learn the facts about Alaska's positive record of managing wildlife for abundance."