Summary National Hunting and Fishing Day celebrates the time-honored traditions of hunting and angling, as well as the immense conservation and economic contributions made over time by the original conservationists – sportsmen and women – who support sound, science-based wildlife management through license sales, excises taxes on outdoor gear, and sustainable-use models. National Hunting and …
Summary Misinformation on our hunting and angling traditions directed to impressionable students can have wide and long-lasting repercussions, especially as these students grow up to be voters, legislators, attorneys and public officials. On the whole, America’s students are not hearing about the value of science-based conservation and the integral role of hunting and angling in …
Animal Rights Intrusion into Public Institutions Read More »
Summary Animal rights groups, such as the Humane Society of the United States, PETA, and many others, are widely known to adamantly oppose all hunting and angling and to proactively pursue ways to diminish the ability of sportsmen and women to continue these rich traditions. Using the legal arena and emotional pleas, these groups will …
Summary Educating the non-hunting and angling public about the numerous benefits that sportsmen and women provide for conservation is one of the best ways to help the public understand our time-honored sporting traditions. State wildlife councils offer sportsmen and women the opportunity to pool their resources and educate the public about how conservation is funded, …
Summary Encouraging sportsmen’s involvement in the political process is an important method for protecting our outdoor heritage. Increased public participation, particularly at the ballot box, ensures that hunters and anglers are represented, which strengthens the ability of the sportsmen’s community to collectively defeat anti-sportsmen policy objectives. Facilitating voter registration for sportsmen and women, at the …
Summary Dogs play a critical role in the sporting community. One important role, blood tracking, is the practice of using dogs to assist in the recovery of harvested game. Contrary to the name, blood tracking dogs are employed when there is very little blood to track and instead find harvested game following its scent. The …
Summary Recent advances in technology, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s), which can assist in the tracking and taking of game, have posed an ethical debate within the hunting community. Legislators and sportsmen should be mindful of Fair Chase issues and, on a state-by-state basis, determine if legislation is warranted to ensure hunting is practiced …
Summary Animal rights groups use the neglectful, often illegal, operations of breeders and kennel owners who maintain substandard kennel conditions to push for overbearing “puppy mill” legislation. This legislation affects all breeders and kennels and overlooks the fact that substandard kennels can often be addressed through the enforcement of existing laws. Responsible sportsmen and women …
Summary A standard capacity magazine generally means any detachable ammunition feeding device that is sold with a firearm when it is shipped new from the manufacturer. In some cases, such as modern sporting rifles, the standard capacity magazine is regularly 30 rounds. Some state laws created after the 1993 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, limit the …
Summary Recently, efforts were made in Maine to ban the use of soft baits when fishing. Arguments in favor of the ban centered on aesthetic issues related to lost/discarded lures in their state’s waters, and concerns over the health of individual fish that were found to have ingested soft baits. To date, no studies have …