Outdoor News from the
Safari Club International
ROAR V4N16
That’s Entertainment
SCI’s 32nd Annual Hunters' Convention, which is set to take
place
Jan. 21-24, 2004 in Reno, Nevada,
has finalized entertainment and speakers for its evening
festivities.
Forty-first
President George Bush, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf (US Army,
Ret.), comedian Jeff Foxworthy, country star Lee Greenwood, actor
Gerald McRaney, and wildlife researcher Shane Mahoney have
graciously agreed to entertain and enlighten Convention attendees
during the 4-day event’s evening
awards and auction banquets.
Journalists
wishing to attend as members of the working media can visit
http://209.234.180.134/pressreg/index.htm or contact
Jim Brown, SCI PR Director; 520-620-1220, ext. 477; 520-618-3565
(fax);
jbrown@safariclub.org.
Monson Gets Votes
Thousands of
votes for SCI President-Elect John Monson have been cast in the
Budweiser’s 2004 Conservationist of the Year competition. (ROAR
4.14).
More are needed
prior to the November 28 deadline. The winner of this accolade
will receive $50,000 to be donated to a conservation organization
or project of his or her choice.
To vote, go
online to
www.budweiser.com. After inputting your date-of-birth and
entering the site, click on “Sports,” then “Outdoors,” and finally
“Conservationist of the Year”.
SB489 Fires On
California bill
SB489
(ROAR
4.15), which would effectively ban semi-automatic firearms in
that state, was passed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee
Sept. 4 and is now on the Assembly floor awaiting reconsideration.
SCI urges
California sportsmen and women to sound off to their
state legislators against SB489. It is an affront to the
Second Amendment and to hunting.
Expanded Season
Illinois
hunters are experiencing greater opportunities with the expansion
of their handgun hunting deer season.
According to
ESPN.com,
Governor Rod Blagojevich recently signed legislation that
allows handgun deer hunting during the state’s two-week fall open
deer season. The old handgun season occurred in January and
lasted only for three days.
SCI salutes this
furthering of handgun hunting rights in
Illinois.
Grizzly Delisting on Horizon
The Associated Press
reports that, as early as 2005,
the USFWS is planning to submit a proposal to have Yellowstone
National Park grizzly bears removed from the Endangered Species
List.
The announcement
came during the recent summer meeting of the Interagency Grizzly
Bear Committee. Information gathered from radio-collared bears
between 1983 and 2001 helped determine that
Yellowstone
grizzlies are at the Park’s carrying capacity.
This action
likely will draw the ire of animal rights extremists. Sound off
today to the
USFWS and
federal lawmakers in support of the delisting, which is based
on sound science and management techniques.
Crossbow Hunting
Peter Cuffaro, a
Wheeling, W.Va. sportsman who is paralyzed from the chest, down
and experiences left hand weakness and shoulder problems, is
challenging his state’s ban on hunting using crossbows (ROAR
4.9).
According to
The Associated Press,
Cuffaro claims his is unable to bow hunt because of is
infirmities, and has filed a complaint to the
US Department of Justice against
West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources seeking to
have this ban relaxed for the physically challenged.
“The reason we
started,” began Tom LaQuey of the Coalition for Disabled Hunter
Rights, “is that the disabled still aren’t allowed to hunt in
archery season if they need something besides a regular bow.”
PETA Hypocrisy
In yet another
break in its excessively cracked logic, PETA, which rabidly
opposes any kind of hunting and trapping of wild animals even to
control wildlife intrusions on human communities, is supporting
efforts in Newport News, Va. to trap capture feral cat colonies in
that city. Captured cats will stay at the local SPCA shelter for
three to five days before they are euthanized.
According to
dailypress.com, PETA
spins their support of the efforts by claiming feral cats suffer
from “starvation” and “disease,” are struck by vehicles, and are
culled as nuisance animals by individuals; situations which are no
different than what is experienced by other wildlife species.
PETA Grilled
PETA’s
unconscionable “Holocaust on your Plate” traveling campaign (ROAR
4.7) recently received a hefty dose of poetic justice in
Bismarck, N.D., reports The
High Plains Journal.
In response to
an appeal by outdoor journalist
Trent Loos, some 50 individuals showed up at the tasteless
demonstration with their barbecue grills and served about 400
hamburgers to passers-by.
“It appears
these fund-raising groups — PETA for example — are not about
providing solutions,” said Loos. “They simply attempt to exploit
the most vulnerable people in today’s society.”
PETA Attacks Vet
PETA is urging
its members to deluge Jack L. Stephens, CEO of
Veterinary Pet Insurance, and his company with messages and to
take their business to other pet insurance companies PETA views as
acceptable because Stephens is a sportsman who has traveled to
Africa to hunt.
Many prominent
Americans, like basketball great Karl Malone; California Angels
pitcher Jerrod Washburn; comedian Jeff Foxworthy; aviation legend
Chuck Yeager; 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush;
and many members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, the
largest bipartisan caucus in Congress, are all avid hunters who
are proud to be a part of the international outdoor sporting
community.
Show your
support for Stephens by e-mailing
media.info@petinsurance.com or by calling 800-872-7387.
ALF On the Loose
The FBI is
investigating the illegal release of some 10,000 minks from a mink
ranch in Sultan, Washington. As of this writing, all but 1,000 of
the minks have been recovered with the help of dozens of neighbors
and volunteers.
A communiqué by
the eco-terrorist group Animal Liberation Front, which claimed
responsibility for the break-in, claimed that the animals could
live in the wild. However, federal and state officials, as well
as the mink ranchers, noted that these are hybrid minks that are
ill-equipped to survive outside the ranch.
“I’d tell them,”
said the mink ranch owner of the ALF in a
komotv.com article,
“they had killed the mink and they’ve ruined a family’s income.
They haven’t saved any mink. They haven’t saved any animals.”
Dove Hunting Affirmed
Despite legal
maneuvering and other pressure tactics from the Humane Society of
the United States, Fund For Animals, and other animal extremist
groups,
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has maintained his approval of
his state’s first ever, 60-day mourning dove hunt (ROAR
4.7), which began Sept. 1.
State officials
expect 20,000-30,000 hunters to harvest 120,000-150,000 doves
during the season, according to
The Associated Press.
According to the USFWS, mourning doves are one of the most
numerous birds in
North America, with 4-5 million
birds migrating from Wisconsin every fall.
SCI
congratulates Gov. Doyle for acting in the name of sound dove
management, and not bowing to the extremists.
CWD Update
More news from
the front in the war on Chronic Wasting Disease:
-
A study
conducted by wildlife researchers in
Colorado and
Wyoming has determined that CWD is spread more easily between
cervids that first thought, especially in winter when animals
huddle together, reports
knoxnews.com.
-
The Capital Times
reports that a doe culled in a park in Fontana, Wis. has tested
positive for CWD. The park lies two miles outside Wisconsin’s
current deer herd reduction zone.
-
Concern about
CWD entering its borders has prompted California Fish & Game to
adopt new,
stricter regulations concerning the importation of harvested
cervid parts into that state.
-
The Colorado
Division of Wildlife is implementing a new electronic network of
hand-held computers to streamline surveillance for CWD and to
make it easier for hunters to get results.
SCI urges
sportsmen to support the efforts of state and federal wildlife
officials in eradicating CWD. For more information, go to
www.sci-foundation.org/cwd/cwd.htm.
Wildlife Attacks
Human/wildlife
conflicts continue to underscore the importance of effective game
management using hunting:
-
The Rocky Mountain News
reveals that foxes, coyotes, and other predators have been
responsible for a year-long cat mutilation spree in the Denver,
Col. area.
-
Mute swans and
animal extremists are stymieing Maryland DNR officials who are
trying to restore
Chesapeake Bay, states
The Baltimore Sun.
-
Two sleeping
backpackers were mauled by a bruin in
Colorado’s
Rocky Mountain National Park, cites
The
Denver
Post.
ROAR
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More on SCI
Founded in 1971,
SCI is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and in
promoting wildlife conservation worldwide.
With some 200
chapters around the globe, the 501(c)(4) non-profit association is
a tireless advocate for the more than 45 million sportsmen and
sportswomen who, through their legal hunting activities, represent
the single largest source of money necessary to maintain wildlife
populations and habitats, to conduct wildlife research and to
enforce wildlife laws. For more information about SCI, visit
www.scifirstforhunters.org or its government relations Web
site at
www.sci-dc.org.
SCI Foundation
funds and manages worldwide programs dedicated to wildlife
conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian services. For
more information about the 501(c)(3) Foundation, visit
www.sci-foundation.org or its International Wildlife Museum
Web site at
www.thewildlifemuseum.org.
