Sarah Palin minced no words in her attack on Ashley Judd and animal activists who lashed out at the governor’s alleged plan to introduce legislation allowing hunters to use helicopters in their wolf-hunting missions. In a statement released yesterday, Palin insisted Judd and the non-profit Defenders of Wildlife’s just-released commercial amounts to nothing more than a deceptive "fund-raising tool":

It is reprehensible and hypocritical that the Defenders of Wildlife would use Alaska and my administration as a fundraising 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 … 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.

Shame on the Defenders of Wildlife for twisting the truth in an effort to raise funds from innocent and hard-pressed Americans struggling with these rough economic times.

Palin did not say, however, whether she will in fact introduce the contentious legislation.