Page 1 of 330 The Monthly National Legislation Report 7/5/2010 ...

The Monthly National Legislation Reporthttp://mnlreport.typepad.com/Page 180 of 3307/5/2010This Months Feature Article is by the award winning New England outdoor writer, Marc Folco. Thank you Marc !!Open Season: Firing back at the criticsJune 21, 2009 6:00 AMI get hate mail on the average of once a week, and I don't know why. My column shouldn't be controversial. Hunting has been around since the caveman, and guns have been around shortlyafter the Chinese invented gunpowder - and our Constitution clearly states that U.S. citizens have the right to keep and bear arms if they so choose. So, hunting and owning guns are two ofAmerica's oldest and most time-honored traditions.Why make them - and my column - a controversy?After 21 years of dealing with cry-baby anti-hunters and runny-nosed gun-grabbers that whine incessantly about my column, the outdoors lifestyle and the shooting sports, I've become thickskinned.Their barbs don't penetrate. Some hate mail I answer, some I don't. Some I answer here.The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), based in Washington, threw another of its hissy-fits recently because I wrote about how the wealthy animal rights group has beeninvestigated after soliciting donations to reunite pets with their owners during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They took in $34 million for that purpose but only spent $7 million on it.So, a whopping $27 million of solicited funds were used for something else.In his letter to the editor, HSUS's Michael Markarian skirts that issue and also avoids the notion that the group is pushing to get 41 dog bills enacted in 26 states that are cloaked aseliminating puppy mills, but go to the extreme, as usual. Language in such bills has included mandatory spaying/neutering (or pay $500 per dog per year that is not spayed or neutered),reporting all puppy sales to local authorities and eliminating the practice of humane tethering.Markarian uses diversion, and says that the group campaigns vigorously against abusive hunting practices. They also (falsely) claim that I defend inhumane practices. Inhumane? By whosestandards? Those of animal rights extremists? By their standards, all hunting is inhumane and the group'sunderlying agenda is to eliminate all hunting.HSUS President and CEO Wayne Pacelle has been quoted as saying, "If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would," as quoted by the Associated Press in ImpassionedAgitator, Dec. 30, 1991. "Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting," asquoted in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Oct. 8, 1991. And, "Sport hunting - the killing of wild animals as recreation - is fundamentally at odds with the values of a humane, just and caringsociety," HSUS Website 2003.And according to a report from the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance (USSA), Pacelle recently criticized in his blog, those who disagree with the group's agenda, practically accusing them of not beingin step with American culture, the report says.Pacelle suggests that HSUS opponents should, "start adjusting to the evolving ethos in American culture. You'll get ahead through innovation and adaptation, not stubborn adherence tocustom or current business operations." He also stated that other animal rights groups, "miss the bigger picture, and our interest in reaching mainstream Americans.""Mr. Pacelle's own words pull the curtain back and unveil the real intent of the HSUS," stated USSA President and CEO Bud Pidgeon. "He admits to attempting to 'mainstream' the group - atthe same time he criticizes 'custom.' There's only one reason to do this and that is to fundamentallychange America to correspond to the HSUS agenda."The HSUS is also involved in a lawsuit to stop the delisting of the gray wolf as an endangered species in the Great Lakes states, where the wolf has rebounded to thriving and healthypopulations, far exceeding the goals that were established in order to remove it from the list. The U.S. Fish andWildlife Service - under the both the Bush and Obama Administrations - has determined that the wolf numbers are more than sufficient for it to be delisted. But that's not good enough for theHSUS and other animal rights groups that are spending money on the lawsuit.Could it be that the money being donated by people who are duped into believing they are helping doggies and kitties, is being used by these groups to fund those expensive anti-huntinglawsuits which tie up the courts with nonsense? We already know that a lot of the money feathers the nests ofhigh-paid executives at the top of these groups. Without an animal rights agenda, they're out of their quarter-million-dollar salaries and would be slinging tofu at a vegan joint. You wantveggie frieswith that?