Sarah Palin Hates Polar Bears

Sarah Palin cares about a lot of things. She cares about gun ownership, beauty pageants, and forcing pregnant teenagers into marriage. She does not, however, care about animals, especially polar bears.

The polar bear is currently listed as a vulnerable or threatened species, meaning it is one step away from becoming an endangered species. This is attributed mostly to the shrinking habitats. Polar bears live on Arctic sea ice that experts agree is melting due to global warming.

Despite the Bush administration's lack of concern over the issue of global warming, they still agreed the polar bear population is "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

Apparently, Sarah Palin was outraged by this decision. She filed a lawsuit to get that decision reversed. Why? Because if an animal is protected under the Endangered Species Act, then strict punishments are set in place for those who purposefully wound or kill the animals. Intentionally wounding or killing an endangered species can mean a fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment for one year, or both. Plus additional civil penalties may be imposed upon the person who violates this Act.

So she wants to protect polar bear hunters until every last polar bear is killed. Not only is this irresponsible and cruel, it's also short-sighted. Once a species is protected, their population is usually able to recover enough that they can be removed from the list. So if she really cared about the polar bear hunters, she'd let the bears' population recover so hunters could once again enjoy shooting them.

We shouldn't allow ourselves to be surprised by this. Palin has a clear record of hating other animals too. According to the Humane Society of the United States, "her record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals than any other current governor in the United States."

They are referring to Palin's pet campaign to allow shooting Alaskan wolves from airplanes in order to artificially increase moose populations for the benefit of trophy hunters. They report that she even offered Alaskans a $150 reward for the leg of each dead wolf to entice people into killing more wolves. She did this despite the fact that her own Alaskan voters have approved a ban to prevent people from killing wolves from planes. Oh and did I mention that she also spent almost half a million dollars of tax-payers' money to try to defeat the initiative when it was up for a vote again?

Clearly, she doesn't even care about Alaskan constituents. The votes and voices of her fellow Alaskans don't matter to her, why should anyone think polar bears would matter?

And why should we think our voices will be heard if she makes it to the White House?