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!

Hunters as Environmental Stewards

From the Burlington (VT) Free Press:


November 29, 2009
Hunters as environmental stewards
So much more than shooting
By Joel Banner Baird, Free Press Staff Writer
ADDISON — The ruffed grouse flew to safety.
Disappointment — measured by two hunters in a discussion of angles, speed, distance and reflexes —
lingered in the air for about three minutes.
Late-afternoon sun continued to warm this soggy patch of Addison along Dead Creek one Saturday
earlier this month.
One bird’s helicopter-like take-off and two shotgun blasts proved to be the day’s only dramatic
interruption to a quiet rhythm of listening, watching and catching scents.
The outing was declared a success.
“Hunting,” said Patrick Berry of East Middlebury, “is not the same as shooting.”
It’s a maxim that resonates more frequently than rifle fire during the 16-day deer season that ends today.
And it begs the question: What do hunters bring back from woods and swamps — beside a sense of
well-being — even when they return empty handed?
Criticism, both from within and without the environmental community, frames the question differently:
Why does our society indulge a hobby that celebrates the taking of another creature’s life?
Wildlife specialists respond in a nearly unanimous voice to both questions: Hunters are among
Vermont’s most effective conservationists by virtue of what they tell us about otherwise-overlooked land;
by what they spend to protect it; and yes — by what they kill.
Read More

VT Sportsmen Win Round One

Vermont Sportsmen Win Round One

May 26th, 2009 NewsEngine Posted in Assorted Outdoors |

As the Vermont legislative session drew to a close, catastrophe for the states sportsmen and sporting dog owners was averted - at least in round one of a battle with the anti’s.

As the 2009 legislative session was in its final hours, Vermont sportsmen and sporting dog owners were ambushed by last minute amendments to unrelated legislation that would have devastated sporting dog kennels throughout the state.

In HB 136, and later in HB 313, the anti’s tried to slip in language that would have classified nearly all sporting dog owners, even those with as few as just one dog, as kennels and pet dealers. This even after the language attached to both bills was removed from a senate bill earlier this year, due to its controversial nature.

Thanks to the efforts of the many dog groups who came out opposed to these efforts, including the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs and the Vermont Federation of Dog clubs, the last minute attack was defeated.

“The anti’s tried to stifle debate on these outrageous amendments and rush them through in the closing minutes of their session,” says USSA vice president for government relations Rob Sexton. “Thanks to the efforts of Vermont sportsmen, the anti’s were unable to avoid that debate and lost.”

Despite winning round one, Vermont sportsmen will undoubtedly be under attack again in the next legislative session. This means sportsmen will need to remain on guard for future bills seeking to restrict their rights to hunt with dogs.

Time to get serious abut wildlife funding

Please take a minute and read Roy's piece published in the 1/14 edition of the Rutland Herald. Roy is the President of the VT Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs and on the steering committee of the VT Wildlife Partnership.

After you read it I hope you will join me and other serious sportsmen/conservationists and talk to your local legislators about continuing equitable support for the wildlife we love and the agency that makes sure the critters stay healthy - the VT Fish and Wildlife Dept. The division that is getting hit the hardest are the local Game Wardens. Before the latest Douglas Administration budget cuts, there were fewer Wardens than in 1971, and with the latest cuts it's going to get a lot worse.
In the last 2 1/2 years the Department has been forced to leave nearly $4 million dollars unclaimed because they did not have the state money to match the Federal dollars that we were eligible to collect. One dollar would have meant 3 additional federal dollars! Where else can you get a return on your money like that. Even the crooks on Wall St weren't doing that well.
As you can tell I'm not happy that our government is throwing desperately need money away at a time of economic free fall and climate warming stress on the environment and our wildlife.
Read and weep - then get on the phone and let Douglas and your representative and senators know what you think. Don't let them soft talk you with the old milk for babies or browse for Bambi argument. The FWD is one of the few entities in state government that makes money - 82% of their budget, but also generates nearly $29 million in sales and rooms and meals tax for the general fund. What do they get back to invest in the resource? $2.1 million budgeted, minus $800,000 already cut and more coming unless we tell them no. NO more cuts this fiscal and get going on long term, fair funding for the Department as suggested by the 2007 Legislative funding committee and advocated by the VT Wildlife Partnership.

Time to get serious about wildlife

These are extraordinarily difficult economic times. On that, all Vermonters agree. Published: January 14, 2009 ( 0)
http://www.rutlandherald.com/section/OPINION03

For more on the long term solution go to http://www.vermontwildlifepartnership.org/