Caption: U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance President Bud Pidgeon (left) and Cabela’s Senior Vice President of Retail and Marketing Mike Callahan (right) present Remington President and CEO Thomas Millner (center) with the inaugural Cabela Lifetime Business Achievement Award at the SHOT Show on Jan. 10, 2007. (High resolution image available upon request.)
Sportsmen Join Lawsuit to Prevent Antis’ Misuse of ESA to Ban Hunting (Click for more)
The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation has filed to represent sportsmen in a precedent-setting lawsuit brought by animal activists to derail hunting, fishing and trapping for abundant game wherever endangered or threatened species exist.
PETA Strikes Against Trapping (Click for more)
One of the nation’s most outspoken animal rights groups is pressuring local governments to eliminate beaver trapping programs.
Activists Ransack New Jersey Game Farm, Leave Animals for Dead (Click for more)
Animal extremists vandalized a New Jersey quail farm and sealed the fate of thousands of pen-raised birds who were forced into the night without food, water or shelter.
Sportsmen Join Lawsuit to Prevent
Antis’ Misuse of ESA to Ban Hunting
(Columbus) – The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation has filed to represent sportsmen in a precedent-setting lawsuit brought by animal activists to derail hunting, fishing and trapping for abundant game wherever endangered or threatened species exist.
On Jan. 4, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation (USSAF) asked U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. for permission to join a federal lawsuit brought by the Animal Protection Institute against the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. In October 2006, the animal rights group sued to expand endangered and threatened species protections to healthy and abundant wildlife populations.
“Our goal is to prevent the animal rights movement from manipulating the Endangered Species Act to ban hunting, fishing and trapping,” said Rob Sexton, USSAF vice president for government affairs. “The case could set a precedent that affects the future of hunting, fishing and trapping and how they are used as wildlife management tools.”
At issue is the legal argument brought by anti-hunters that trapping of any species should be banned in order to prevent the possibility of inadvertently catching federally protected Canada lynx, bald eagles and gray wolves. There is no data proving this to be a problem.
“It is important for sportsmen to understand this lawsuit represents far more than a strike against a single sport,” said Sexton. “The trappers won’t be the only ones impacted. If anti’s can stop all trapping in a place where there is a risk of catching a Canada lynx, they can just as easily try to stop fishing in bodies of water where there is a risk of catching an endangered species of sturgeon.”
This lawsuit also treads on states’ authority to manage wildlife. An unfavorable decision would virtually require judges to close hunting, fishing and trapping.
As the case develops, the USSAF continues to defend sportsmen’s rights in two nearly identical lawsuits brought by anti’s against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. They also would set dangerous precedents that put hunting, fishing and trapping in jeopardy.
The USSAF has filed to join the case, along with the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, Maine Trappers Association, Fur Takers of America, and individual sportsmen Oscar Cronk, Donald Dudley and Alvin Theriault.
The U.S. Sportsmen’s Legal Defense Fund is the nation’s only litigation force that exclusively represents sportsmen’s interests in the courts. It defends wildlife management and sportsmen’s rights in local, state and federal courts. The U.S. SLDF represents the interests of sportsmen and assists government lawyers who have little or no background in wildlife law.
The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen’s organizations that protects and advances America’s heritage of hunting, fishing and trapping.
Fox Sports Ends Anti-Trapping Spot
(Columbus) - Fox Sports Net, which provides regional sports programming to 85 million households, will no longer run an anti-trapping advertisement produced by the nation’s largest animal rights group, the Humane Society of the United States.
Thousands of angry sportsmen nationwide had sounded off to the network in December after the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA), the nation’s leading sportsman advocacy organization, exposed the network’s decision to air the political advertisement as a gratis public service announcement.
Fox Sports Net told USSA that the 15-second, anti-trapping commercial expired on Dec. 31 and will not run again. The advertisement featured Humane Society of the United States leader Wayne Pacelle and a second animal activist urging viewers to support trapping bans. To add to the sensationalism, the spot opened with a loud clank as a foot hold trap with teeth - a trap that has been banned throughout the country for decades - snapped shut.
“Sportsmen delivered a message to Fox Sports that they want the network to scrutinize the public service announcements it receives so that anti-trapping and anti-hunting political advertisements like this HSUS spot do not receive approval in the future,” said Rick Story, USSA senior vice president. “Based on discussions USSA has had with the network, we anticipate that in the future it will pay much closer attention to ads that reflect such political viewpoints.”
Trapping is recognized by every wildlife agency at the state and federal level as a viable and important conservation tool. It helps keep furbearer populations at healthy levels and is important in stemming the spread of wildlife diseases that threaten animals and humans.
The Humane Society of the United States opposes all animal use, including trapping, hunting and fishing. It has a multi-million dollar budget that it invests in legislative and ballot campaigns to ban trapping and hunting. It also has a legal arm to challenge sportsmen’s rights in court.
Sportsmen can subscribe to the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance E-mail Network at www.ussportsmen.org to stay informed about this and other issues that impact the future of America’s outdoor heritage.
The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs. For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website, www.ussportsmen.org.
