Beware The Back Door Politics to End Hunting

Hunters, fishermen, and trappers have been faced with those opposed to what they do for some time. The reasons from the opposition are varied and often masked and hidden behind false or deceptive tactics to promote and achieve personal agendas. The bottom line for many like this is to end the long-time heritage of hunting, fishing and trapping.

The tactics used in persuing their goals are varied, sometimes hidden and will morph with changes in attitudes and the directions taken by the people, especially when they run into roadblocks. There are many instances that we read about or are directly involved in, where we must spend a lot of money to defend our sports.

Just a short couple of years ago, Maine had to fight a bear referendum to stop bear hunting. Oregon battled with anti-hunting and animal rights groups a few years ago and lost a fight that now bans dogs for hunting of any kind. They will in the near future be facing a similar fight about bear hunting. Utah now faces a lawsuit from animal rights activists to stop all hunting in all the state wildlife refuges. This list goes on.

These anti-hunting groups have learned that when they can’t seem to win over the majority in their bid to stop hunting in large chunks, they find other tactics such as raising the hunting age or other small things that will eventually diminish the interest, especially in young hunters, knowing that ultimately, the sport will die off.

There are other methods being employed all across America today that we need to be made aware of. Some of these methods seem harmless enough but the backdoor agenda is still present.

The one political wrangling that is going on in many places, involves the movement of who controls hunting, fishing and trapping. Most state’s game and wildlife are managed by a state wildlife department. Some departments are simple and others complex utilizing a game department, a seperate commission and in some cases a third entity of a board of directors. However the departments are set up, the funding has come through them and these departments have their own biologists and professionals to best manage our wildlife. These departments don’t have total free rein as they are watched over and kept in check by state legislators.

Science is generally what drives the fish and game departments to move to regulate laws, set hunting seasons, etc. with the idea that what they do is best for the animals. Now we are seeing a movement from some politicians and anti-hunting and animal rights groups, to take the authority away from fish and game departments and move it to local authorities.

These individuals and groups are bent on stopping hunting, fishing and trapping. They also know that many communities, especially larger towns and cities, will side with them. We are seeing it everyday. Towns face problems with over populations of deer and other wildlife problems because these communities have banned hunting.

When you have a situation where a large metropolitan area makes up the majority population of a county, the will of the city is imposed on those in the rural areas of that county. This is one example of how putting control of hunting, fishing and trapping into the hands of county officials, will for all intent and purposes end the sports.

Hang on to your hats and open your eyes because this is exactly what is taking place. Anti-hunting politicians are sponsoring bills nationwide that will move who controls hunting, to local authorities and away from the state. The idea for this is to allow the citizens within a community or county to decide what they want based on emotions, lack of science and supported by lies from the animal rights people.

Not only is this a bad idea from the perspective of removing hunting and trapping from the formula used by scientists to manage the wildlife but these towns or counties aren’t equipped in any way to deal with wildlife issues. They have no expertise in managing wild animals.

By moving control to local government, it completely puts wildlife management in the hands of politicians and removes science from the equation.

New York right now is looking at a bill that will do just as I have described. The politician who introduced the bill, Alexander Grannis (D) New York, is starting small with this bill but I guarantee the eventual goal is to encompass hunting and fishing. The bill would put the control of trapping in the Empire State in the hands of county officials.

The bill is AB1835 and has cleared the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee by a vote 17-11 and now heads to the general assembly. Sportsmen had been fighting the bill within the committee and thought that had it beaten or at least stalled but committee chairman Thomas DiNapoli (D) Nassau, quickly scheduled a vote on the bill.

This is backdoor anti-hunting anti-trapping legislation that we all need to be aware of. It is taking place in nearly every state to some degree and is nothing more than an attempt at whittling away at hunting, trapping and fishing with the ultimate goal of ending them. We need to fight back.

Tom Remington