The howling has stopped. An animal-rights group is dropping the "howl-ins" it conducted as part of a nationwide campaign to stop the killing of wolves in Alaska, but members will continue their call for a tourism boycott of the state
Over the past two years, Friends of Animals helped stage hundreds of demonstrations in cities across the country to protest Alaska's predator-control program, intended to allow moose and caribou to increase in numbers. Some activists dressed in wolf outfits at the gatherings, and some howled in imitation of wolves to protest the hunts.
But the campaign failed to convince Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski that killing wolves is wrong, said Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, based in Darien, Conn.
"If the boycott was designed to get Murkowski to sacrifice an attitude, it didn't happen," Feral said.
The animal-rights group had better success about a decade ago, when then-Gov. Wally Hickel stopped a wolf-hunting program after 53 howl-ins in 51 cities.
Tag : Alaska, USA, Wildlife.