Today the new "Conserve Wildlife" license plate went on
sale. The proceeds
from the plate will go to the Wildlife Foundation of Florida, Inc. a
citizen's
support group.
The Wildlife Foundation of Florida is a relatively new
organization and in their
short time they sponsored five children to represent Florida in the
International
Youth Hunt Challenge, contributed to the National Wild Turkey Federation
(a
hunt organization), the National Rifle Association, provided handicapped
accessible hunting areas and built areas for fishing. This supposed
"citizen
support group" is just another way of funding our state's hunting and
fishing
organization, Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. The board of
directors for WFF is: Allen Egbert, current administrator of Game &
Fish,
Robert Brantly , ex-director of Game and Fish, and other hunters.
Citizens who buy this plate thinking monies are going to
help wildlife and in
particular the Florida Black Bear are being duped. When the bill was
passed
for this plate, there were no assurance that monies would go toward
programs
to help wildlife, preserve habitat or help the endangered Florida Black
Bear. In
fact Game and Fish did not ban hunting the Black Bear until 1996 well
after
populations were decimated.
The panther Plate, raised over 20 million dollars for
Game & Fish. Proceeds
went towards a captive breeding program with the Florida and Texas
Panther.
When the experiment was over the panthers were sold to a captive hunt
Farm
in Texas.
Florida is the third largest state in the United States
for diversity of wildlife yet
almost no monies go into non-game programs. Most of Florida's wildlife
preserves allow hunting and fishing.
What appears to be a wonderful opportunity to raise
money for conservation
of Florida's precious wildlife is a smoke screen to put more money into
Florida
Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission's pocket, monies that go towards
killing animals.
Attempts by SPARO in April 1998 to have the plate
stopped failed in committee
and the state legislature approved the plate.
Source: sparo@gte.net
Go on to Summer 1999
Poultry Press Thank You
Return to 23 May 1999 Issue
Return to Newsletters
** Fair Use Notice**
This document may contain copyrighted material, use of which has not been
specifically authorized by the copyright owners. I believe that this
not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the
copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your
own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.
