Take Action Against Hunting
TAKE ACTION AGAINST HUNTING NEWSLETTER - 7 May 2003 Issue
Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
Researched and Compiled by Joe Miele
House lawmakers in Oregon approved a bill that would allow the use of dogs to hunt cougars. The bill goes next to the Senate, but Governor Ted Kulongoski has indicated that he will veto it. "He's been pretty clear all along that he was not interested in overturning the will of the people," said natural resources adviser Jim Myron.
House Bill 2436 is the latest of dozens of attempts to repeal the 1994 voter initiative, which was upheld again in 1996, that banned using bait to attract or kill black bears and banned using dogs to hunt or pursue black bears or cougars.
Opponents of HB 2436 slammed the bill as a concession to trophy hunters who
would kill only the “finest specimens.” Representative Carolyn Tomei said the chances of a person getting attacked by a cougar were minute - about 1 in 25 million.
Cougars virtually were eliminated from the state in the early 1960s. There have been no human deaths caused by cougars. Oregon law allows hunting of cougars but not with dogs.
Source: Statesman Journal (Salem, OR) 4/24/03
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Oregon residents should contact their state senator and ask that s/he vote against Senate Bill 832. Contact information for your state senator can be found at: http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/findset.htm.
Please also contact Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and ask that he veto the bill if it is passed by the senate.
Governor Ted Kulongoski
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, Oregon 97301-4047
Voice: 503.378.4582
Fax: 503.378.6827
Points to make:
In 1994 Oregon voters banned the practice of hunting bears and cougars with dogs. That law was upheld by voters in 1996. The public has spoken out strongly against these hunts and the will of the people should not be ignored.
Excessive cougar hunting in the 1950s brought the animals to the verge of extinction and hunting was outlawed in the early 1960s.
Like all hunting, hunting cougars with dogs is cruel and inhumane.
Bears will continue to be trapped and killed through federal wildlife programs aimed at protecting Oregon tree farms. Stan Thomas, head of the Roseburg Wildlife Services office, and three local federal trappers will continue killing bears who peel bark from fir, spruce, hemlock and pine trees. Trapping normally takes place from April through June when bears sometimes feed on trees after lean winter months.
Documentation published by Wildlife Services indicates 1,031 black bears were killed in Oregon from 1996 through 2001. Most of those bears -- about 714 -- were killed to protect industrial tree plantations. Snares, cages, traps, hunting and tracking with assistance from dogs were all used to locate and kill the bears.
Bear trapping to control timber damage began in the 1970s.
Source: www.oregonnews.com 4/29/03
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact Wildlife Services at:
Craig Tuss, Field Supervisor
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Roseburg Field Office
2900 N.W. Stewart Parkway
Roseburg, Oregon 97470
Voice: (541) 957-3474
Fax: (541) 957-3475
Ask that they discontinue the bear killing program in favor of an effective, non-lethal solution.
Write letters to the editor of Oregon's largest newspapers and let them know that bears are being killed to protect tree farming special interest groups.
Letters to the editor
The Oregonian
1320 S.W. Broadway
Portland, Or., 97201
Fax: (503)294-4193.
Letters to the Editor
Statesman Journal
P.O. Box 13009
Salem, OR, 97309-3009
Fax: (503) 399-6706;
200 words or fewer. Include your first and last name, street and mailing addresses, town, and day and evening telephone numbers.
The Register-Guard – Mailbag
P.O. Box 10188
Eugene, OR 97440-2188
Fax: 338-2828
E-mail: rgletters@guardnet.com
Points to make:
There are many effective methods of bear deterrence being employed across the country. Bears can be effectively taught to avoid certain areas by using aversive conditioning. They can be shot with rubber bullets, harassed with pepper spray and kept out of areas with electric fencing. All these methods of bear deterrents are non-lethal.
Killing problem bears in no way educates others to avoid the tree farms.
FYI
Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ended a 280-year ban on Sunday deer hunting by authorizing one day each for archers and shooters. The law allows hunting on private land in 12 rural counties in Western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore. The ban continues in Central Maryland and Frederick, Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties.
The law sets aside the first Sunday in November for archers and the first Sunday in modern firearms season. (This year they fall on Nov. 2 and 30.)
During last fall's gubernatorial campaign, Ehrlich said he opposed Sunday hunting. Last year, the Sunday hunting bill was vetoed by then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening.
Source: Baltimore Sun 4/23/03
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game had proposed to eliminate all predators from a 520-square-mile experimental micromanagement area for three years. The plan called for killing 45 to 48 wolves and temporarily relocating brown and black bears during the spring calving season. Biologists say such efforts should let the moose population rebound and provide a higher harvest for local hunters. Trappers killed 15 wolves around McGrath, Alaska this winter, slightly more than average.
Once thought to be the prime source of moose and caribou mortality, wolves were killed with abandon by federal agents and bounty hunters during territorial days. Over time, however, changing public sentiment caused managers to pare back wolf hunting and trapping. The last lethal wolf control in Alaska occurred more than a decade ago.
Source: Anchorage Daily News 4/25/03
The last group of one of Thailand's rarest animals is being hunted to the point of extinction. The goral is a small antelope-type animal native to mountainous areas such as Doi Inthanon national park.
The park recently launched a so-called ``Goral Protection Mission'', carried out by around 80 forestry officers to save the lives of a dozen known goral from being killed by poachers.
Source: Bangkok Post 4/27/03
A coalition of groups including The Humane Society of the United States, Maine Friends of Animals, the Fund for Animals and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have joined in a campaign to put a referendum on the ballot in November 2003 to ban bear baiting, hunting bears with dogs and the use of bear traps in Maine. To this end, the Humane Society of the United States and Maine Friends of Animals have formed a political action committee called Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting.
Bob Fisk, founder and director of Maine Friends of Animals, assured people that the new coalition has no interest in an outright ban on the state's $12 million black bear hunt. "We're not against hunting," Fisk said. "We just think that these three cruel practices should be outlawed. Maine hunting as a tradition is being demeaned."
Bear baiting is the practice of luring a bear to a feeding station for several weeks so that a concealed hunter can shoot the feeding bear when hunting season opens.
Maine's bear population is estimated at 23,000. Last year, nearly 4,000 were killed during the fall season. Fewer than 100 were trapped, about 400 were killed by hunters using dogs, and perhaps a few hundred were killed by unaided hunters, but the vast majority- more than 3,000 animals –were shot over bait, according to Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife statistics.
Bear hunting is primarily a trophy hunt in which hunters often pay more than $1,000 to hire a guide. Only nine states permit baiting, and bear trapping is legal only in Maine.
Source: Bangor Daily News
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