California SB1221

[bonuspointjohn]

The California Senate today passed a bill that would outlaw the use of hounds in pursuit of bears and bobcats. The move took place in spite of an outpouring of sportsmen who packed the legislative halls protesting against the bill. U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance has a re-cap. I would suggest that all read what our neighbors to the west have done. The bill was pushed / supported by.... the HSUS...BPJ

[Snapshot]

It's California. Is anyone really surprised?

[CouesWhitetail]

U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance

801 Kingsmill Parkway, Columbus, OH 43229

Ph. 614/888-4868 • Fax 614/888-0326

Website: www.ussportsmen.org • E-mail: info@ussportsmen.org

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mike Faw (614) 888-4868 x 214

May 21, 2012 Sharon Hayden (614) 888-4868 x 226

Anti-Hunting Bill Passes California Senate

 

(Columbus, OH) –California Senate Bill 1221, a bill that will ban the use of hounds to hunt black bears and bobcats, passed the state’s Senate today. The passage of SB 1221 by the senate casts a dark cloud over the future of all hunting and wildlife management in California. Senate Bill 1221 passed with a vote of 22 to 15 in favor.

The bill, which is sponsored by the radical animal rights group Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), triggered a strong outpouring of opposition from California sportsmen and women, plus sportsmen’s organizations, in the state and nationwide. The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) denounced this retaliatory wildlife management bill that was created when HSUS could not have a state game commissioner removed for his legal mountain lion hunt. As the bill moved forward from introduction and through the hearing process, hundreds of opponents wearing orange “NO on SB 1221” buttons also packed the corridors of the capital to let their Senators know they opposed this anti-hunting bill.

“The California Senate today chose retribution and revenge over sound science-based wildlife management,” explained Evan Heusinkveld, USSA’s director of state services. “Despite having a Fish and Game Commission explicitly designed to handle these questions free from the politics of the statehouse, the California Senate voted in favor of a hunting ban.”

USSA has been working with the Masters of Foxhounds Association, California Houndsmen for Conservation and the California Outdoor Heritage Alliance to defeat SB 1221.

Fast Facts on SB 1221

• The bill would outlaw the use of hounds to hunt bears and bobcats.
  
• Hunting bears and bobcats with hounds has been legal since the state formally organized a game commission and established game management and hunting laws.
  
• Hounds are actually used in wildlife management practices and projects.
  
• Hunters using hounds to pursue bears actually take fewer bears than is recommended by the state’s game department.
  
• This bill is being pushed by the radical animal rights group—the Humane Society of the United States—the same group that has pushed anti-farming and puppy mill bills in California in the past.
  

 

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[Non-Typical Solutions]

So let the lion and bear encounters begin with no complaining about the disappearance of my poor pet poodle........

[Snapshot]

.........and after fluffy gets eaten, the liberal boneheads will go crying too the Game and Fish Department to do something about it.

[bear402]

It's not law yet. It still has to make it through a vote in the CA state assembly. Hopefully it won't !

 

Pretty sad it made it through that the state senate !

[DesertBull]

The California game and fish kills more lions now than hunters did when it was legal to hunt them.

[Snapshot]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11816964-mountain-lion-shot-killed-after-prowling-santa-monica-shopping-mall?lite

[BeardownAZ]

Its California. Same state that produces such things as Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, micro stamping of firing pins and ammo, "bullet button" gun bans, I could go on and on. I feel for those who live there that arent superliberal. My wife gets mad cause I wont go there more often for vacations but I have a hard time supporting a state that doesnt allow its people to live freely.

[Non-Typical Solutions]

I had to laugh when I heard this story the other day, check it out.....bear interrupts graduation ceremony.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153063/Bear-graduation-Bear-interrupts-graduation-California-elementary-school.html

[Coach]

Man California is one messed up state. It's too bad really, They have it all - the coast, the mountains and pines, the deserts...Too bad it's so overrun with moonbats. The funny part is, much of California is very conservative, they just can't compete with the loud-mouthed "progressives" that have run an otherwise great state into the ground.

[sagebrush]

http://mountainlion.org/index.asp

 

Know thy enemy.

[audsley]

Considering what's going on in California, how smart would it be to pursue a high-profile, large scale predator control effort right now?

 

This is exactly what some have been urging AGFD to do. I'm skeptical that any aerial gunning of coyotes or intensified lion removal using hounds could have a significant effect on deer populations unless conducted at a level that would be prohibitively expensive and politically impossible. What has been shown to work are localized removals right before the fawning season. After a couple months, coyotes and lions from adjacent areas migrate in to fill the vacuum and you're back where you started except that fawns and lambs are a couple of months along and have a much better chance of survival. Research from actual experience has shown that localized removals have been proven effective for jump-starting low populations of ungulates. We would be wise to keep predator control efforts limited to what research has shown is effective. Otherwise we risk losing one of the few effective tools we have at our disposal while our wildlife continues struggling in this drought.

 

Given that the public does not - and maybe never will - fully appreciate the role hunting plays in maintaining a successful wildlife program, a major predator removal campaign would just be asking to get a ballot iniitiave for predator protection down our throats. (It's been said that as California goes, so goes the nation - eventually.) And if the legislature tips Democratic, as it has before, that would become even easier to do. If such a proposition ever reached the ballot, I have no doubt it would pass with the help of a press sympathetic to what they'd see as a "reform" measure.

 

Demanding large-scale predator control to restore hunting opportunities to what they were 25 years ago works well for demagogues looking to rally hunters around a cause or an organization, but it isn't playing our cards very smartly. I hope certain people are paying attention to what's going on in California and using their heads. Arizona isn't California, at least not yet, but it isn't Utah either.

[TLH]

Considering what's going on in California, how smart would it be to pursue a high-profile, large scale predator control effort right now?

 

This is exactly what some have been urging AGFD to do. I'm skeptical that any aerial gunning of coyotes or intensified lion removal using hounds could have a significant effect on deer populations unless conducted at a level that would be prohibitively expensive and politically impossible. What has been shown to work are localized removals right before the fawning season. After a couple months, coyotes and lions from adjacent areas migrate in to fill the vacuum and you're back where you started except that fawns and lambs are a couple of months along and have a much better chance of survival. Research from actual experience has shown that localized removals have been proven effective for jump-starting low populations of ungulates. We would be wise to keep predator control efforts limited to what research has shown is effective. Otherwise we risk losing one of the few effective tools we have at our disposal while our wildlife continues struggling in this drought.

 

Given that the public does not - and maybe never will - fully appreciate the role hunting plays in maintaining a successful wildlife program, a major predator removal campaign would just be asking to get a ballot iniitiave for predator protection down our throats. (It's been said that as California goes, so goes the nation - eventually.) And if the legislature tips Democratic, as it has before, that would become even easier to do. If such a proposition ever reached the ballot, I have no doubt it would pass with the help of a press sympathetic to what they'd see as a "reform" measure.

 

Demanding large-scale predator control to restore hunting opportunities to what they were 25 years ago works well for demagogues looking to rally hunters around a cause or an organization, but it isn't playing our cards very smartly. I hope certain people are paying attention to what's going on in California and using their heads. Arizona isn't California, at least not yet, but it isn't Utah either.

 

Very well said larry. Great post!

[azslim]

It would be hard to capture, but I have thought if a video could be made of a coyote taking down a helpless fawn, and a pack of wolves devouring a cow elk in labor with a calf and show it to the public a few minds might be changed about these walking stomachs. The anti's had no problem showing puppies in leg hold traps when that issue came up for a vote.