Animal-rights activists love to portray hunting as barbaric, unfair and unethical. They pick and choose battles to wage – whether that’s using bait, hounds, bows or any other method or species of animal. In truth, those activists want to end all hunting and trapping. And even fishing!
Teaming up with The HUNGER series from ScoutLook, we produced a spring bear hunting video using bait – an often-attacked method. Its use for bears has been banned in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Massachusetts by ballot initiatives backed by the Humane Society of the United States. They even tried unsuccessfully in Idaho where this hunt took place – but thanks to the Sportsmen’s Alliance and Idaho hunters, we were able to protect its use. As you’ll see in the video, bait is not a slam-dunk, unethical hunt. It’s anything but.
Top-Five (and a bonus) Threats to Hunting, Fishing and Trapping in 2018!
5. Grizzly Bear Delisting: Removing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear from the protections of the Endangered Species Act is about more than simply acknowledging a recovered species or opening a hunting season. It’s about protecting sound scientific wildlife management and the legitimacy of the Endangered Species Act itself. The court battle with the Humane Society of the United States, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and many other groups will be long and expensive; that’s part of their game plan: bankrupt sportsmen’s groups with long court battles and expensive legal fees while ginning up the emotions of their followers and raising even more funds to end hunting and scientific wildlife management.
4. Alaska Public Land Management: An executive order that changed wildlife management rules on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska was reversed by Congress. But a similar change to National Parks lands was unable to be reversed. The Sportsmen’s Alliance has filed a federal lawsuit to removed these changes on park and preserve lands. The issue being that states, with few exceptions, have always managed the fish and game within their borders. And nowhere is this more true than Alaska, where it’s protected in three government documents and agreements with the federal government. If the federal government can change management rules within state borders in Alaska, they can change them anywhere and at any time – something that puts wildlife management and hunting, fishing and trapping at the whims of political interests in Washington, D.C.
3. Losing Bait & Hounds: As we said above, the use of bait, and also hounds, for apex predators such as black bears and mountain lions is portrayed as unethical and unfair by animal-rights activists. It’s simply untrue. Both methods help increase odds of success for elusive predators with large home ranges and no set pattern of movement. They are methods that wildlife biologists can use to better manage individual species, as well as the ecosystem as a whole. Animal-rights activists love to introduce state bills or engage in ballot box warfare to eliminate the use of bait and hounds. The Sportsmen’s Alliance fights both, and follows through in the court system if necessary. Once animal-rights activists take bait and hounds state by state, they’ll come for the use of hounds for waterfowl and upland game, fishing restrictions and even bowhunting.
2. Loss of Trapping: Constantly under attack by animal-rights activists and organizations, trapping has been lost in one form or another in more than a dozen states – and successfully defended from attacks in other states, most recently on public lands in Montana when the Sportsmen’s Alliance led a coalition to defeat Initiative 177. Portrayed as cruel and unnecessary, trapping is a favorite target of anti-hunters, but its loss is devastating to ecosystem management of everything from furbearers to apex predators. When trapping is removed, taxpayers and already financially strapped fish and game agencies have to pony up the costs of damages and the pest removal process.
1b. Ballot Initiative Bans: All of the above methods and management principles can be undermined by popular vote at the ballot box. Anti-hunting, animal-rights organizations, such as the Humane Society of the United States, love to use the initiative process to introduce populace-mandated wildlife management devoid of science but filled with emotion. Using this tactic, and their bottomless financial resources, they’re able to leverage media with misinformation, myths and outright lies. When it comes to wildlife management, most non-hunting urban residents don’t understand the process of management, and the ramifications of misrepresented bans. It’s up to the hunter, angler, trapper and the Sportsmen’s Alliance to challenge these attacks nationwide.
1a. Sportsmen Complacency: Voter turnout and the inability for sportsmen to organize makes hunting, fishing and trapping susceptible to successful ballot-box campaigns and legislation. Perhaps just as damaging, or more so, are the meaningless divides between sportsmen based solely on personal pursuits, beliefs concerning methods and individual heritages when it comes to different seasons, weapons or means of pursuit. We must stand united or fall individually, state by state, until all hunting, fishing and trapping is banned. The Sportsmen’s Alliance unites your voice to protect the big picture of wildlife management while fighting the extreme animal-rights movement in individual state legislatures, courthouses and ballot boxes. Your voice is needed on every topic, complacency is not an option any longer.
Join the Sportsmen’s Alliance today during this special limited-time offer with The HUNGER, and receive the following great benefits, in addition to lending your greatest weapon, your political voice, to the fight to protect your outdoor passions for now and the future.
- One-year of of Sportsmen’s Monthly – Official Sportsmen’s Alliance Newsletter
- Sportsmen’s Alliance decal
- Sportsmen’s Alliance hat
- Member’s only email announcements and invitations
- Custom membership card
- Access to Experticity and discounts on top brands
- Member Only Discounts
- One-year of Sportsmen’s Monthly
- Sportsmen’s Alliance decal
- Sportsmen’s Alliance hat
- Member’s only email announcements and invitations
- Custom membership card
- Access to Experticity and discounts on top brands
- New or upgrading Protecting members will receive a Buck Knives PakLite Skinner knife
- Member Only Discounts
$100 Advancing Membership:
- One-year of Sportsmen’s Monthly
- Sportsmen’s Alliance decal
- Sportsmen’s Alliance hat
- Member’s only email announcements and invitations
- Custom membership card
- Access to Experticity and discounts on top brands
- New or upgrading Advancing members will receive a Buck Knives PakLite Skinner & $25 Cabela’s gift card
- Member Only Discounts
About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.