The operators of a private cervid facility located in Kent County’s
Algoma Township have been charged with violation of the Michigan
Department of Agriculture’s (MDA) Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
Quarantine Order issued in August 2008 after a three-year old Kent
County female white-tailed deer tested positive for the disease.

James and Brian Schuiteman, owners of J & B Whitetails, were recently
arraigned in 63-1 District Court in Rockford and charged with violating
Michigan’s Animal Industry Act for movement of an animal in violation
of the quarantine placed on their facility by MDA. This is a felony
charge carrying a penalty of $1,000 to $5,000 in fines and imprisonment
of up to five years. The Schuitemans waived their right to a preliminary
exam in court today.

The charge stems from an incident on Aug. 23, the day after the
quarantine was issued by MDA. At approximately midnight, Department of
Natural Resources Conservation Officers David Rodgers and Michael Mshar
observed two persons enter the quarantined facility with flashlights and
a tranquilizer gun. The officers witnessed the subjects seek out a
specific deer, tranquilize it, and then remove the deer. The deer was
loaded into an enclosed trailer, and towed from the property, where
officers conducted a traffic stop to detain the suspects.

Officers determined a live male white-tailed deer was contained in the
trailer with identification tags removed. Upon questioning the suspects,
the officers learned it was their intent to release the buck into the
wild. Officers returned the animal to the facility where it was
euthanized and immediately transported to the Diagnostic Center for
Population and Animal Health at Michigan State University for testing.
The deer tested negative for CWD.

The DNR’s investigation of J & B Whitetails also resulted in the
review of records at Big Buck Taxidermy, located adjacent to the
enclosure. Investigators determined two free-ranging deer with intact
heads were imported into Michigan illegally and delivered to Big Buck
Taxidermy by customers. The deer were taken from known CWD-positive
areas in Wyoming and South Dakota.

For more information on CWD in Michigan, visit the Michigan Emerging
Diseases Web site at www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases.

While on duty in a patrol car, two troopers poached a deer last November. They get hefty fines, jail time and community service. In addition, their firearm was seized and they lose their hunting priveleges. Click on the title for the full story.

The following information provided by Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners (MCRGO)

Feb 25, 2009

State Rep. Paul Opsommer (R-93) announced today a new bi-partisan package of resolutions that will assert Michigan’s right to bear arms under its Constitution, the supremacy of the Second Amendment over the Commerce Clause, and the will of the Michigan legislature to not recognize or enforce unconstitutional firearm restrictions placed upon its citizens.

Opsommer’s resolution, HCR 009, speaks directly to the many new federal firearm laws that are being introduced. “Even though I am only a State legislator, some of these federal proposals are so egregious that you really don’t have a choice but to get involved,” said Opsommer. “They would trample over our own Constitution and firearm laws, and I don’t think we can sit idly by to just wait and see if and when these bills become law”.

Opsommer said he will also be reintroducing his bill HB 6518 (2008) and expanding it so that it also addresses the new agenda Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush has added to his anti-firearm’s wish list. The bill was introduced last year in reaction to coercive attempts by Mayor Bloomberg to create new video surveillance databases of gun purchases with Wal-Mart.

“Congressman Rush’s legislation would also call for other biometric schemes that would include the fingerprinting of law abiding citizens and a new Attorney General approved picture ID card,” said Opsommer. “We were able to halt provisions last year that could have required a new and vague national ID card in order to buy firearms, and we will do so again whether it is to register firearms, ammunition, or handloading equipment.”

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Fairfax, Va. – The United States Senate has voted, with overwhelming bipartisan support, to adopt an amendment offered by Senator John Ensign (R-NV) that seeks to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens in the District of Columbia. The amendment, attached to S.160, the D.C. Voting Rights Act, will repeal restrictive gun control laws passed by the District of Columbia’s (D.C.) city council after the landmark D.C. v. Heller Supreme Court decision. The vote margin was 62-36.

“Today’s vote brings us one step closer to restoring the Second Amendment freedom of law-abiding D.C. residents,” said NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox. “It’s ludicrous that good people in our nation’s capital continue to be harassed as they try to defend themselves and their loved ones in their own homes. This vote reinforces the historic Heller ruling.”

After the Heller ruling, the D.C. city council passed a law requiring would-be gun owners to pay a registration fee, pass a 20-question multiple choice test, take a five-hour training course, undergo an invasive background check every six years, re-register any firearm every three years, and finally, submit all handguns for ballistics testing. Current D.C. law also bans an overwhelming majority of firearms commonly used for self-defense. This Ensign Amendment would also remedy that unjust practice.

“NRA would like to thank the lead sponsor, Sen. John Ensign for his efforts to reform D.C.’s gun laws and enable folks to protect their property and their loved ones,” concluded Cox. “It’s time for leaders in Washington to wake up to the fact that the Supreme Court decision is now the law of the land.”

NEWTOWN, Conn.

Responding to Attorney General Eric Holder’s comment yesterday that the Obama Administration will attempt to reinstate a ban against semi-automatic rifles, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reminded Congress and all Americans that such a ban would cause jobs to be lost in a difficult economy, have no effect on reducing crime and would deprive millions of law-abiding sportsmen and gun owners of their Constitutional right to own the firearm of their choice.

Holder made his comments in connection with criminals supplying illegal guns from the United States to drug dealers in Mexico.

“The problem of criminals breaking the law to acquire firearms and illegally smuggling them across the border is not remedied by legislation that would violate the rights of Americans to own semi-automatic firearms,” said Steve Sanetti, president of NSSF, the trade association of the firearms industry.

“These types of firearms, which are erroneously called ‘assault weapons,’ are used by millions of Americans for hunting, sporting and personal defense purposes,” Sanetti added. “We can only conclude that certain officials are waiting for any politically advantageous excuse to announce the intention to seek a new ban on sporting rifles, a ban that would break the president’s campaign promise to gun owners that ‘I’m not going to take away your guns.'”

The industry and firearms owners were understandably outraged by Holder’s comments yesterday, and today even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backed away from the idea of a new gun ban. “On that score, I think we need to enforce the laws we have right now,” said Pelosi, surprisingly taking the position of pro-gun advocates.

Holder’s use of the inaccurate term “assault weapons” is one that is deliberately used by gun-ban advocates to create confusion between legally sold, semi-automatic rifles and look-a-like, fully automatic military versions. While the civilian version of these rifles may resemble their military counterparts, the civilian rifle fires only one round with each pull of the trigger. Additionally, these rifles fire ammunition calibers no more powerful than traditional-looking sporting arms. Civilian access to fully automatic machine guns has been severely restricted since 1934.

Studies show that the ban against sporting firearms, known as the Assault Weapons Ban, that was in place from 1994 to 2004 did not reduce crime. Furthermore, there has been no increase in crime involving these types of firearms since Congress allowed the ban to expire.

A ban on sporting firearms also would have a severe effect on jobs and the economy. Sales of semi-automatic rifles have been strong over the last several months — overall sales of firearms have increased as much as 42 percent — and have allowed companies in the firearms industry to withstand, to some extent, the downturn in the economy.

“These semi-automatic rifles are the most popular rifle in America today and they are largely behind the recent increase in firearms sales,” said Sanetti. “This is a bright spot in our economy and has helped save jobs in our industry.”

Since the election last November gun owners have feared the Obama Administration would seek legislation that would infringe on their Second Amendment rights. “It appears gun owners’ fears were well-founded given Attorney General Holder’s comment that the Obama Administration will seek new restrictions on gun owners. A new gun ban would fly in the face of last year’s Supreme Court decision in the Heller case that reaffirmed the Second Amendment right of all Americans to keep and bear arms,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.

Rumor has it … HB 45 Slipped into Federal Stimulus Package?

Feb 18, 2009

Like you, we have heard the rumors about anti-gun legislation (HR 45) being slipped into the stimulus package President Obama just signed.

We have been monitoring this and can assure you this is not the case. To put your mind at ease, we’d like to summarize for you the confirmation we have received from NRA:”The only provision in the stimulus bill that has anything to do with firearms is the funding for BATFE’s “Project Gunrunner,” which (as we pointed out in Friday’s Grassroots Alert) is a program that enforces existing laws to reduce smuggling of firearms from the United States to Mexico. This program imposes no new restrictions on gun owners.

We have gone through the final 1,073-page bill, and its earlier House and Senate versions, both with computerized search terms and a page-by-page review to check the non-searchable handwritten notations.”For your convenience below are links to the bill:http://appropriations.house.gov/.

The name of the stimulus plan is “American Recovery and Reinvestment”http://www.house.gov/billtext/hr1_legtext_cr.pdf – link is very slow loading.http://www.house.gov/billtext/hr1_legtext_crb.pdf – link is very slow loading.

Carry on!
Chuck Perricone
Executive Director
Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners (MCRGO)

No big surprise here. Anti- hunters will be able to claim how right they were, when their own self-fulfilling prophecy comes true and the lack of hunter dollars leads to the polar bears’ demise…Glen Wunderlich

While the newly installed Administration gains its sea legs, it has already made a decision that negatively impacts hunters and conservation funding for polar bears.

In the first significant decision by the new Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said that it will continue banning the import of polar bear trophies from Canada. The announcement was made of February 24, 2009.

Last year, polar bears were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The designation came as a result of a lawsuit threat by environmental organizations that claimed polar bear numbers will decline. Biologists of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said such a decline might be as far away as fifty years because of possible global warming and shrinking arctic ice.
The USSA has consistently argued against the designation. It does nothing to deal with the alleged cause of possible future decline. Additionally, the USSA has made clear that by banning the importation of trophies, conservation dollars generated from applicable fees will dry up.

This FWS decision was immediately hailed by the leading anti-hunting group in the country, the Humane Society of the United States and its legislative wing, the Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF). In typical fashion, the HSLF used overblown rhetoric when praising the Obama Administration without explaining how reducing conservation funding is going to help better manage polar bear populations.

As previously reported, the USSA has worked with U.S. Representative Don Young (R- AK), who has introduced legislation in Congress to amend the relevant statutes hijacked by anti’s. Young’s bills, HR 1054 and HR 1055 allow for the importation of existing and new polar bear trophies. Both bills guarantee a restoration of conservation funds currently lost.

The USSA will continue supporting the bills.

Gun-free zones have long been the criminals’ place of choice when carrying out the most abhorent crimes. Schools, churches – anywhere guns have been prohibited – offer sanctuaries for scum to carry out their heinous acts. Michigan House Bill 4348 recently introduced provides the following:

(a) Carry a pistol concealed on or about his or her person anywhere in this state.

(b) Carry a pistol in a vehicle, whether concealed or not concealed, anywhere in this state.

A similar bill had gone nowhere and it’s too early to know if this one has a chance at passage. It seems much too sensible for the vast majority of politicians to get behind but stranger things have happened.

By Glen Wunderlich
Outdoor Columnist
Member Professional Outdoor Media Association

I wrote this column a year ago but the audacity seems quite relevant to today’s demagogues.

Approximately 40 miles of Pacific Ocean separate the mainland of Santa Barbara, California from once-privately owned Santa Rosa Island, the crown jewel of the Channel Islands National Park. The island, purchased with $30 million of taxpayers’ money, is home to 1100 Roosevelt Elk and Kaibab Mule Deer, which were imported to the island by the private owners some 75 years ago. Since that time, the non-native species have coexisted with various flora and fauna and have remained free from any diseases common to their cousins elsewhere. The following question has arisen since ownership has changed hands: Should the park be protected and open to all Americans year-round or should it also be made available to hunters to manage the elk and deer population? In a clever manipulation of power, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Congresswoman Lois Capps (all Democrats from California) have arranged for the extermination of all of these magnificent animals. None will survive.

Typically, one would count these left-leaning liberals on the side of the animals, along with animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Just look what happened here in Michigan when a mourning dove hunting season had been established and then abolished – thanks to the fiery emotional appeal fueled by millions of “animal-loving” HSUS dollars on behalf of the migratory birds. One would think that over a thousand elk and deer would warrant as much support but the silence of HSUS and PETA has been deafening.

While scratching my head, I began a review of the Congressional Record of May 14, 2007 and learned of California Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter’s attempt to save the animals from complete annihilation. Although a court-ordered extermination had been handed down, the assistance of the National Rifle Association (NRA) helped Representative Hunter to enact a law in 2006 protecting the healthy elk and deer on the island for visitors to enjoy. However, the National Park Service inexplicably pushed for the government-mandated aerial slaughter of the non-native elk and deer and Senator Feinstein obliged it by in including total eradication language in a 2008 fiscal year Omnibus Appropriations Bill that trumped the 2006 law to keep the animals alive on the island.

Here is what Representative Duncan Hunter said in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on June 13, 2006: “All we want is about two weeks a year for the paralyzed veterans to come over. I would be happy to stipulate that no congressman, no VIPs. Only people who are paralyzed veterans, who are very disabled veterans…They could have the adventure of a lifetime. And, you know something, they may be wheelchair-bound but their spirits are free; they like adventure. This is a great place to take your family. And, this could be a special niche for those people. And, you know something else? The people of the United States, if the taxpayers knew that this was going to be used by paralyzed veterans, they’d say fine.” He added that the park service could easily accommodate the veterans and then elaborated. “Listen, the reason the park people have their nice jobs and the reasons we, as members of the American public, get to enjoy national parks is because of people who wear uniforms who go out in dangerous parts of the world and secure our freedom. So let in some paralyzed veterans, many of whom have been injured in combat, to come have a small piece of this island that almost nobody goes to anyway, is a small repayment for their service to our country. I think the taxpayers would appreciate that.”

While the liberals claim to support the troops, they sure have a funny way of showing it. And, those radicals in support of animal rights have proven that their agenda is less about animal welfare than it is about the elimination of hunting. It’s that simple.

A buttonquail, thought to have been extinct, was recently photographed in the Phillipines and then sold as food. Mmmmm good!

Some complain that this may have been the last living specimen of the species but if there were, in fact, only one left, why not one tasty, happy meal?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090218-extinct-bird-photo.html