December 06, 2009 CNN HLN

CNN Transcript:

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why? Why is -- let me put this up. OK. Take a look at this. The Bush administration in its final days made a move to remove the wolf`s federal protections.

Now, the NRDC recently ran this full-page ad in "New York Times," which crosses out Bush`s name and replaces it with Salazar, who is President Obama`s secretary of the interior. It now reads, "The Salazar plan to kill the gray wolf," because he put Bush`s plan into action.

Now, during the presidential campaign, a huge controversy erupted because of Sarah Palin`s advocacy of wolf hunting. Aerial hunting in particular showed how these animals are cut down and left to die bloody deaths in the snow. Many voters were horrified by those images.

Now, the last time I checked, Andrew, Sarah Palin lost the election. I expected President Obama would take a peaceful approach to the wolves, but now, the administration is sounding more like their opponents by declaring war on these animals. Why and what can we do to stop it?

WEXLER: Well, the Obama administration has done a lot of very, very positive things when it comes to environmental protection from global...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m talking about the wolves, I`m sorry. But the wolves, why are they doing this to the wolves?

WEXLER: Well, they`re just not following the science. The truth is, there`s not enough wolves in the region. We can`t afford to be killing wolves at this rate, and the administration needs to reassert federal protections for gray wolves.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What are they, listening to the ranchers? Because isn`t there the concern of the ranchers, they want to get rid of all the wolves so that they can go hunting whatever the prey is for themselves, or they don`t want to have a sheep eaten by a wolf? I mean, these are the arguments that I`ve heard.

So the administration is siding with them? Even though the voters said hey, we don`t like this when they decided not to elect Sarah Palin?

WEXLER: The administration is heeding some bad scientific advice, and they`re getting a lot of pressure from hunters and from ranchers in the northern Rockies. That`s exactly right.