By Peter Muller
This year the animal rights community in the country
and in New York State in particular experienced an emotional rollercoaster
ride as the NY State legislature attempted to outlaw canned hunts
in the State.
As most of you know “canned hunts” are ethically
the lowest form of hunting. In canned hunts, the target animals
are confined to a fenced in area – sometimes they are even caged
or tethered. A “sportsman” pays the operator of the “game preserve” a
fixed fee to shoot the hapless, confined animal at close range.
The hunter has his picture taken with his trophy and is whisked
away to the après-kill lounge for cocktails while his trophy is
turned over to the taxidermist. Most people, including many “ethical” hunters
find this practice totally abhorrent and would like to see
it outlawed.
Canned hunts have, in fact, been outlawed or severely
curtailed in about 20 states. This year it was New York’s turn
to join the list of the less barbaric states.
The New York state legislature has two houses: the
Assembly and the state Senate. The Assembly districts are based
strictly on population. Since most of the state’s population is
around the metropolitan-New York City area, the Assembly is dominated
by members representing the “downstate” population of the state.
It’s an area that tends to be more liberal and chooses Democrats
as representatives. The Senate is based on regions within the state.
Since most of New York State’s geographic area is in the northern
and western part of the state, the Senate is dominated by the “upstate” population
which is largely conservative and Republican.
LOHV, and other groups concerned with animal protection,
lobbied to get the canned hunt bill passed.
The first step was to get the bill introduced in
both the Assembly and the Senate.
In the Assembly we had Scott Stringer from 67th Assembly
District which covers Manhattan’s upper West Side. He is a very
congenial man with a great sense of humor who loves animals – especially
birds. Some years ago he had introduced a bill to ban canned hunts – in
the process of becoming law it was mangled and corrupted so that
it only applied to shooting preserves of less than ten acres. Since
there weren’t any shooting preserves of less than 10 acres
in New York it did absolutely nothing, but it was a start.
Scott Stringer
introduced a bill that was fabulous. Mincing no words, it simply
outlawed canned hunts.
In the Senate, we had Frank Padavan of the 11th Senatorial
District in Queens. Senator Padavan is probably called on for help
more frequently by AR lobbyists in New York than any other senator.
He sponsored a bill in the Senate with the same wording as the
Assembly bill. Frank is an ex-hunter himself. He is opposed to
canned hunts and all forms of animal abuse. He is one of the highest
ranking Senators in New York. He is Vice-President Pro Temp of
the Senate which means that he is only one step away from being
the presiding officer of the senate. Perhaps a better indicator
of his rank than his title is the location of his office. He is
not in the LOB (Legislative office building) but in the capitol
together with the governor and the presiding officers of the legislature.
After the introduction in both houses, the bills
had to clear various committees – three in the Assembly and
two in the Senate.
As expected, with a little encouragement from the
contingent of AR lobbyists, the bill made it through all three
Assembly committees in a little less than three months. After
a bill passes all the committees of a legislative house, there
is
still a major hurdle – the bill has to be voted on by the entire
house. In New York, the progression from the committees to the “floor
vote” is not automatic. The presiding officer of the legislative
house has to schedule it for a floor vote. Many a bill makes it
through all the committees – but then never the gets voted on because
the presiding officer doesn’t schedule it. The leader of the
Assembly is Sheldon Silver from the 16th Assembly district
in Lower Manhattan.
This year, Sheldon Silver let it come to a floor vote and the
Assembly voted in favor of the full Stringer bill by a vote
of 98 to 48
on June 9th.
At that time, the legislature was focusing on just
approving the budget and then adjourning for the rest of the
year. We still had the Senate to go. In the Senate, as expected,
we were
up against the conservatives from upstate. We didn’t get the bill
that Scott Stinger had introduced – but a greatly “watered down” version
that would only prohibit canned hunts of “non-native big game mammals.” That
left out birds – many shooting preserve in New York State offer
birds to shoot to their clients. It also left out animals native
to the region, such as whitetail deer. Now what? The bill went
back to the Assembly in the modified form. I remember being on
the phone with Scott Stringer’s aids very late on June 19th. They
wanted to know if our organization would oppose the bill in that
format. I had to think for a minute – but told them that we weren’t
happy but we’d take it – “It’s better than a poke in the eye.”
Finally on June 20th, the watered-down bill had passed
both houses. It was now ready for the governor’s signature. The
presiding officer of the Senate, Joe Bruno, from the 43rd Senatorial
District in Saratoga, delivers the bills that pass both houses
to the governor. Our suspicion should have been aroused when he
didn’t deliver the bill to the governor until August 14th – almost
two months after the bill had passed both houses.
On August 26th, Governor Pataki vetoed the bill.
It was clear what happened. A powerful lobby in New York is the
Farm Bureau. The Farm Bureau represents and lobbies for the New
State farmers. There are about 340 deer and elk farmers in NY State
who raise deer and elk to be slaughtered for venison. They also
sell the antlers for medicinal and aphrodisiac purposes to primarily
Asian countries. These farmers have recently experienced a loss
of the aphrodisiac business due to Viagra. There is not much commercial
demand for venison. However, about 40% of their revenue is derived
from selling animals that are too old to be slaughtered to canned
hunt operations. If canned hunt areas were outlawed they feel they
could not withstand the additional loss of revenue. The governor
caved in to the complaints of the Farm-Bureau, thus allowing the
continuation of one of the vilest forms of animal torture and killing.
His veto was truly an unconscionable decision for a governor whose
mandate is to represent all 16 million New Yorkers, not merely
340 depraved deer farmers..
Governor George E. Pataki
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
Phone: 518-474-1041 and 518-474-8390
Fax: 518-474-1513
Email Form: http://www.state.ny.us/governor/form.htm
Peter Muller is Chairman of LOHV League of Humane
Voters USA www.humanevoters.org
