On October 7, a group of over 30 sportsmen-conservation organizations sent a letter to the Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel and Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Dan Ashe regarding concerns of misinformation recently presented by Congressman Raul Grijalva (AZ) outlining his policy proposals for African game hunting.
The letter states that, “Congressman Grijalva seeks to push forward with the listing of the African lion as a threatened species, despite the fact that the FWS has not yet completed its scientifically-based and statutorily mandated process to determine whether such a listing is justified. Moving quickly to finalize the proposed rule to list the African lion as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) would ignore the scientific data and undermine the validity of the ESA itself by circumventing process in a reactionary response to recent events.”
“Following the recommendations of Representative Grijalva’s letter would allow the prejudices of anti-hunters to overcome the scientific evidence which proves that hunting provides invaluable support for wildlife, habitat management and conservation, particularly anti-poaching efforts,” stated the letter. “Hunters and hunting remain one of the strongest and most effective forces for wildlife conservation.”
The organizations supporting this opposition letter represent millions of sportsmen-conservationists across the country and around the globe, working to promote science based wildlife management and provide factual information to combat anti-hunting rhetoric.
Studies conducted at both the state and federal level have found that the number of hunters and trappers have been on a generally declining trend over the past several decades. To increase recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) of hunters and trappers, which initiative do you think would have the greatest impact?
