U.S. House Gives Stocking Full of Gifts to Most Extreme Factions of the Hunting Lobby
U.S. House Gives Stocking Full of Gifts to Most Extreme Factions of the Hunting Lobby
February 26, 2016
The U.S. House said one thing today and did another. Lawmakers in support of H.R. 2406, the Sportsmens Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act, talked about helping sportsmen and the tradition of hunting and conservation. But in the legislation they passed today, they have done almost nothing for rank-and-file hunters and have instead offered a stocking stuffed full of special offerings for trophy hunters, ivory carvers, commercial trappers, ammunition manufacturers, and other special interests.
Among other harmful provisions, the SHARE Act now strips wolves of their federal protections in four states under the Endangered Species Act, subverting the judicial process and subjecting hundreds of wolves to hostile state practices such as baiting, hound hunting, and painful steel-jawed leghold traps. It also includes language to block federal wildlife officials from stopping aerial gunning and baiting of grizzly bears and denning of wolves on national wildlife refuges in Alaska. It prevents the federal government from stopping deer hunting with packs of dogs in the Mark Twain National Forest an activity banned in the vast majority of states. And it blocks the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from finalizing and enacting its proposed rule to curb the trade in ivory in the United States, which would help combat the current elephant poaching crisis.
The people who benefit from the provisions of this are Americas most extreme and ruthless hunters. They are to hunting what Cliven and Ammon Bundy are to ranching zealots who want to operate with no rules and who act as if they, not the American taxpayers, own our public lands.
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http://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/2016/02/bad-share-act-passes-house.html?credit=fb_postwp022616