Outdoor commentary and legislative issues.
Says to Put Herself in Bears Shoes
After 18-year old Camille Bomboy of Lock Haven, PA narrowly survived a black bear attack while deer hunting last week, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called out the girl for being a hunter and suggested she put herself in the place of the “individuals you and the rest of your hunting party were trying to kill”. Read more
On Tuesday, December 17th, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation (USSAF) filed comments with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) over a proposal to remove Gray Wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Wolves continue to remain at the forefront of the issues facing the sportsmen’s community today. While the Western Great Lakes and Rocky Mountain populations of wolves have already been removed from ESA protection (“delisted”), this latest proposed rule would delist the remaining wolf populations across the country (with narrow exceptions for Mexican wolves in the Southwest and Red wolves in the Southeast). In addition, USSAF and our partners are currently engaged in lawsuits in Wisconsin over their wolf hunting season and in a lawsuit in federal district court in which the Humane Society of the United States is asking a judge to again overturn the delisting of wolves in the Western Great Lakes.
Of particular concern with the latest proposal is the potential for the Service to recognize two separate wolf species. Read more
A suspected sighting of the highly invasive plant parrot feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum) was reported to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in the fall of 2013. Following recently developed state agency protocols, the DEQ transferred the report to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife Division. A team of Wildlife Division staff, utilizing the new Early Detection and Response Plan, conducted verification and assessment at a small detention pond in Wayne County’s Brownstown Township. Read more
Michigan’s 2013 elk hunting season that just wrapped up was a successful season all-around. While hunters walked away with an experience they’ll never forget, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff members are happy management goals were met, both safely and legally.
“We manage elk in Michigan by hunting,” said area wildlife biologist Jennifer Kleitch. “Our seasons are very specific. We have certain hunting areas, dates and quotas, and we are very deliberate in order to maintain a healthy elk herd in balance with the available habitat.” Read more
GW” This from John Lott
“The Republican Party: Health Care: Let ’em Die, Climate Change: Let ’em Die, Gun Violence: Let ’em Die, Women’s Rights: Let ’em Die, More War: Let ’em Die. Is this really the side you want to be on?” Read more
Ruger Expands the Popular Line of Lightweight Compact Revolvers with the Addition of the LCRx Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR) announces the introduction of the LCRx™, the newest variation of the revolutionary Lightweight Compact Revolver (LCR®). Chambered in .38 Special +P, the LCRx™ features an external hammer that allows it to be fired in single-action mode. Read more
BELLEVUE, WA The Second Amendment Foundation has accepted a $38,000 settlement from the City of Seattle for the city’s failure to release public records about the city’s gun buyback in January. Read more
COTTONWOOD, AZ- LaserLyte®, innovators in firearms laser technologies, announce a one-of-a-kind training kit for owners of modern sporting rifles that includes the LaserLyte® .223 laser cartridge trainer, a 32-inch push rod, an over-sized charging handle and a charging block that prevents live rounds from being chambered. Read more
MINT SPRING- Parker Bows, a manufacturer of high quality Compound bows, Crossbows and Crossbow Accessories is proud to introduce the Lightning compound bow for 2014. With an expandable 30 lb draw weight range and 10″ of draw length adjustment, the Lightning allows for the full weight adjustment across the entire draw length range. Read more
This from www.HumaneWatch.org…
HSUS runs a 20-year-old affiliate called the Wildlife Land Trust (WLT), whose reason for existence is to inherit land from people and subsequently prohibit development and hunting—forever. Essentially, WLT seems like a disjointed effort at creating wildlife preserves across the U.S., and it claims to hold rights to property in 32 states.
One such range of land is 3,000 acres in Oregon called the Greenwood Preserve. HSUS wants to build a water guzzler there to help the wildlife out with another source of water (despite, by WLT’s admission, that the preserve “contains three year-round sources of water – a rarity in the West”). HSUS has launched a “crowd-funding” campaign to raise $12,200 to build the guzzler, essentially a contraption that collects rainwater. Crowd-funding works by collecting small ($5 or $10) donations for a specific effort.
Here’s our question: Why?
HSUS’s budget is $120 million. The Wildlife Land Trust has a $6.9 million budget. Can’t they find $12,200 in there to build a watering hole? That’s about 0.0096% of their combined budgets, or nine one-thousandths. Not exactly breaking the bank.
The trouble with the crowd-funding exercise is that it frees up more money for HSUS to waste on other things. This wouldn’t be bad if HSUS was already a fiscally responsible organization, but it isn’t one. CharityWatch finds that HSUS spends up to 45 percent of its budget on overhead. The watchdog Animal People puts the figure higher—at 55 percent. There’s a lot of money to go around, but HSUS wants to spend it on direct mail.
So while HSUS is “crowd-funding” a project that could be easily financed using existing dollars, it can put that $12,200 it’s not spending on the water guzzler towards mailing costs and to conduct more fundraising. This might be a small drop in the pond, but it speaks volumes about the priorities at HSUS.