hunting
“Right to Hunt” on Mississippi Ballot
Voters in Mississippi will have the opportunity on November 4 to make hunting and fishing a constitutional right in that state. Hunters and lawmakers there have become increasingly concerned as animal rights advocates across the country seek to further limit sportsmen’s choices. Seventeen states in the U.S. have already made hunting and fishing a constitutional right, subject to existing laws and regulations. Although animal rights groups deny their intention to curtail hunting and fishing, their assurances are incredulous in the light of clear and unequivocal statements made to the contrary by the leadership and spokespersons of those organizations. Click to see quotations—both for and against—as expressed by various organizations on the subject. Posted October 19, 2014
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Not Stupid; Just Misled
A recent poll by the Opinion Research Corporation revealed that seventy-one percent of Americans believe that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is an umbrella organization for local humane societies across the country. They’re wrong.
Further, sixty-eight percent believe that donations made to HSUS help to fund these humane shelters. They’re ninety-nine percent wrong.
HSUS, according to IRS filings, gives one percent of their budget to animal shelters, according to JoAnn Alumbaugh’s article in Dairy Herd Network.
Are all these people wrong because they are stupid, or are they being misled?
House Committee Approves Protections for Hunting on Public Lands
Legislation ensuring sportsmen’s access to federal lands cleared its first hurdle this week as the House Natural Resources Committee voted 28-15 in favor of H.R. 1825. Known as the Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act, H.R. 1825 is the most significant legislation protecting sportsmen’s access in 16 years, according to the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA). The bill shuts the door on lawsuits brought by anti-hunting groups aimed at pushing sportsmen and women off federal lands. H.R. 1825 spells out in plain language that fishing, hunting and recreational shooting are legitimate and important activities on National Forests and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. The key provision of the bill is the “Open Until Closed” language, which mandates that U.S. Forest Service and BLM lands are open to hunting, fishing and recreational shooting unless specific steps are taken to close those lands for necessary and demonstrable reasons. According to the USSA, the “Open Until Closed” provision is a “game changer” for the future of hunting, fishing and recreational shooting on public land. The USSA led the charge for similar 1997 legislation that protects sportsmen’s access to National Wildlife Refuge land that has resulted in new refuges open to hunting all across America. “We urge Congress to move this critical legislation quickly,” said Bill Horn, director of federal affairs for the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance. Click for more details. Posted June 14, 2013
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The Coyote: An Allegory of “Want”
Jim Duggan photo
Here is the funniest, most perceptive and penetrating description of the coyote that I have ever read! Excerpted from Roughing It, a collection of Mark Twain's experiences while prospecting and reporting in the Wild West between 1861 and 1867.
Another night of alternate tranquility and turmoil. But morning came, by and by. It was another glad awakening to fresh breezes, vast expanses of level greensward, bright sunlight, and impressive solitude utterly without human beings or human habitations, and an atmosphere of such amazing properties that trees that seemed close at hand were more than three miles away.
We resumed undress uniform, climbed atop of the flying coach, dangled our legs over the side, shouted occasionally at our frantic mules, merely to see them lay their ears back and scamper faster, tied our hats on to keep our hair from blowing away, and leveled an outlook over the world-wide carpet about us for things new and strange to gaze at. Even at this day it thrills me through and through to think of the life, the gladness, and the wild sense of freedom that used to make the blood dance in my veins on those fine overland mornings!
Along about an hour after breakfast we saw the first prairie-dog villages, the first antelope, and the first wolf. If I remember rightly, this latter was the regular coyote (pronounced ky-o-te) of the farther deserts. And if it was, he was not a pretty creature or respectable either, for I got well acquainted with his race afterward, and can speak with confidence.
The Coyote, An “Allegory of Want”
Here is the funniest, most perceptive, and penetrating description of the coyote that I have ever read! Excerpted from "Roughing It," a collection of Mark Twain's experiences while traveling through the Wild West by mule wagon between 1861 and 1867. From the Foxhunting Life archives.
Jim Duggan photo
Another night of alternate tranquility and turmoil. But morning came, by and by. It was another glad awakening to fresh breezes, vast expanses of level greensward, bright sunlight, and impressive solitude utterly without human beings or human habitations, and an atmosphere of such amazing properties that trees that seemed close at hand were more than three miles away.
We resumed undress uniform, climbed atop of the flying coach, dangled our legs over the side, shouted occasionally at our frantic mules, merely to see them lay their ears back and scamper faster, tied our hats on to keep our hair from blowing away, and leveled an outlook over the world-wide carpet about us for things new and strange to gaze at. Even at this day it thrills me through and through to think of the life, the gladness, and the wild sense of freedom that used to make the blood dance in my veins on those fine overland mornings!
Along about an hour after breakfast we saw the first prairie-dog villages, the first antelope, and the first wolf. If I remember rightly, this latter was the regular coyote (pronounced ky-o-te) of the farther deserts. And if it was, he was not a pretty creature or respectable either, for I got well acquainted with his race afterward, and can speak with confidence.
California Bill Will Ban Dogs from Hunting Bear, Bobcat
A California bill (SB 1221) that will ban the hunting of bear and bobcat with dogs has passed the California Senate and is expected to pass the Democratically-controlled Assembly. California lawmakers rejected such bills in 1993 and 2003, but this one is expected to land on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk for signature. Fourteen states already ban the hunting of bear with dogs, and thirteen states ban the hunting of bobcat with dogs. Dan Tichenor, a retired engineer who hunts black bear with Plott hounds in California, says that the plan of anti-hunting groups is to ban hunting species by species and state by state. MFHA Executive Director Dennis Foster makes the same argument, which he calls the “Domino Effect.” If we foxhunters want to preserve our sport, we cannot be selective in which game we support. Both figuratively and literally, we have “a dog in every fight” to ban hunting. More details on the California bill may be read in Paul Rogers’ article in the San Jose Mercury News. Posted June 19, 2012
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HSUS Steps in Where Hunters Refuse to Tread
In the wake of a disgusting poaching incident in which a mountain lion was killed and brutally mutilated, the California Department of Fish and Game organized the Cal-TIP program which offers financial rewards to people who turn in poachers or polluters. Cal-TIP funded the program with $2,500.
Some California hunters are upset by the fact that Cal-TIP accepted a matching funding donation from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). (See story.) I have a different take on this story. I would ask, why didn’t we hunters beat HSUS to the punch?
Federal Judge Protects Hunting on Public Lands
Sportsmen won a major courtroom battle when Federal Judge James S. Gwin in Columbus, Ohio denied a lawsuit seeking to close hunting on fifty refuges within the National Wildlife Refuge System. The lawsuit was filed in 2003 by the Fund for Animals, which later merged with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA)—an organization strongly supported by foxhunters—and other sporting organizations intervened on behalf of sportsmen. Judge Gwin’s ruling counters the attempt by HSUS to use the National Environmental Policy Act to justify the closing of hunting on the refuges. The judge relied heavily on language in the 1997 Refuge Improvement Act, championed by the USSA, which mandated that hunting and fishing be “facilitated” on the refuges. In his ruling, the judge noted that the plaintiffs “are not entitled to an inviolate sanctuary for their preferred uses….Congress has determined that, to the extent possible, hunters, fishers, observers, photographers, and educators must share the refuges.” It is not yet known if HSUS will appeal the ruling. Click for more details. Posted April 21, 2011
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