VT Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs opposes the Nelson amendment and calls for it's repeal

This just in from the Federation via email:

The Federation opposition on H.789 Section 702.1 "Transfer of Regulatory Oversight and Special Requirements for Facility and Herd Management" is attached. 

Thanks,

Mary

Acting Secretary 

 

Clint Gray

Sportsmen and Sportswomen

Be advised that on the last day of the Legislative session H.789, the FY2011 Budget Bill was passed out of this year’s legislature and sent forward to the Governor for signature.

The Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Club, Inc. held their monthly meeting on June 13, 2010, and discussed H.789 and unanimously opposed the legislation as passed.

Section E 702.1 “Transfer of Regulatory Oversight and Special Requirements For Facility and Herd Management.”

The language is very problematic in many areas.

The above section (E 702.1 of H.789) gives a private entity:

·    Private use of wild animals including whitetail deer and moose to do as they wish and to profit from.

·    It allows that culling of the deer or moose to avoid over population, but does not set seasons to run with the State seasons.

·    It allows that deer and moose to be subject to a paid hunt, as a method of culling.

At least one animal was illegally taken alive from the wild, transported illegally to the enclosure and raised without securing a permit or permission of the Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, as required by statute.  There are statutes that dictate the rehabilitation of wild animals if one as been found to be injured.

This section E 702.1 ignores the illegal acts by one or more persons, rewards the owner of the enclosed area by expanding the ownership of the wild animals that are located within the enclosed area.  Then any future wild animals born within the enclosed area and the wild animals presently located outside and enters into the enclosed area now becomes the property of the owner.  These wild animals are no longer the property of all the people. (You and I)

When the first settlers arrived to this new land and settled here, they wanted all animals to belong to the people.  They had come from countries where the animals were the property of the King or Royal family.  In order to take or harvest an animal, permission had to be granted by the King and the Royal family.

From this Common Law and then the Case Law, the Public Trust Doctrine was created “The Wild Animals belong to the people as a whole and are held in trust by the State”.

·      Wildlife is held in trust for all Americans. 

·      Any legislation that threatens this long held tradition must be opposed. 

·      The wildlife belongs to the people, not one individual. 

·      This has been the rule for the past 180 years or so, case law supports that the animals are held in trust by the State. 

·      Additionally this is has been supported for over 400 years of Common Law.

This legislation (Section E 702.1) that passed has a possible serious consequences for future legislation due to the fact that precedent has been set:

·      All owners of enclosures here in the State may ask to have the wild animals that are in or may get into their enclosure to be transferred to their ownership.  The owner may want to be treated equally.

·      Owners of hunting preserves here in the State, that have been in business for may years, and have paid hunts could not, up until now, have hunts involving wild animals that are in the enclosed areas. 

·      The owners of hunting preserves may now request that these wild animals in the enclosed areas or the wild animals that get into their hunting preserve and come under their private ownership. These animals will then be able to be culled any time of the year to prevent over population. 

·      These wild animals will no longer belong to the people, but belong to a few private owners.

CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES AND ADVISE THEM TO ENACT LEGISLATION TO RETURN THE WILDLIFE BACK TO ALL THE PEOPLE AND UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE VERMONT FISH & WILDLIFE!

WE NEED TO CORRECT THIS MISJUSTICE!