Wolf Killed After Attack On Alaska Boy
	Friday April 28 3:28 AM ET From Yahoo

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An Alaskan child was bitten by a wolf at a remote southeast Alaska logging camp, the first incident of its kind in recent Alaska history, officials reported Thursday.

The child was treated and released at a clinic at Yakutat. The animal, an adult male, was shot and killed, according to Alaska State Troopers.

In the attack, a six-year-old boy was bitten three times on the back. The Wednesday morning attack occurred when the boy was playing in a group of trees at a camp in Icy Bay, the troopers said.

Witnesses reported that the wolf tried to carry the boy off into the woods.

Tests Thursday revealed that the wolf was not rabid, said Michelle Sydeman, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The animal, which had been radio-collared in 1996 by the U.S. Forest Service, first appeared in the Icy Bay camp in 1998, Sydeman said. ``So he's been around.''

Fish and Game officials knew of no other attack by a wolf on a human in recent Alaska history.

Since 1940, 38 people in Alaska have died from dog attacks and 32 from bear attacks, according to reports.

Some politicians cited the Icy Bay wolf attack as evidence that the state should do more to thin out wolf packs.

``This is the result of irresponsible management,'' state Sen. Pete Kelly, a Fairbanks Republican, said in a speech Thursday in the state capitol in Juneau.

He also blamed out-of-state environmentalists, ``incredibly well-funded outside influences that have made wolves sacred in this state, wolves that are coming in dragging our children off into the woods to eat them alive.''

Kelly and other state lawmakers, along with rural residents and hunters are advocating a state-authorized wolf kill to boost populations of moose and caribou.

The Republican-controlled legislature last week overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles of a bill expanding wolf hunting. Under the bill, anyone with a hunting or trapping license will be allowed to track wolves by airplane and kill the animals on the same day.

The bill overturned most of the provisions of a 1996 ballot initiative banning same-day airborne wolf hunting that was approved by nearly 60 percent of the voters.

The legislature also passed a constitutional amendment that would forbid Alaska voters from passing initiatives on wildlife issues. That amendment will be on the general election ballot in November.

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