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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?
The Monthly National Legislation Reporthttp://mnlreport.typepad.com/Page 181 of 3307/5/2010Just this week, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is in an uproar because President Obama swatted a fly. So, is swatting a fly (or a mosquito) now considered inhumane andabusive by animal rights' standards? Are we now to adhere to the animal rights doctrine that mainstream Americadoes not swat dirty, disease-carrying insects?I see the animal rights brigade as nothing more than a noisy band of half-baked control freaks, led like sheep by cunning executives interested only in job security, who want to dictate how wespend our leisure time, what we eat and how we raise our own private pets. If you don't like hunting, don't hunt.If you don't like meat, eat weeds. Don't want puppies, get your dog spayed. But why are they trying to shove their ridiculous agendas down our throats and make controversy out of "trulymainstream" activities that have been "custom" for centuries? It's a free country, and if I want to hunt, eat meat, raise a litter of puppies and stomp on a bug, I should be able to withoutworrying about those whiny breast-beaters trying to outlaw it all.Another recent hate letter was from Floyd, who thought my story about feeling the effects of approaching 50 just plain stunk and he wrote, "Write a book and do an autograph session withyour raccoon hat and western jacket. Your description of stink is nothing compared to your articles."Well written, Floyd, but I beat you to it. Already working on my book - a collection of short stories, my favorite stinky articles. Hey, I might even name it that. "My Favorite Stinky Articles, byMarc Folco." It's got a nice ring to it. And thanks for the idea of wearing a coonskin hat for the book signing. Don't have a coonskin one though, so I'll have to wear my full-length coyote hat,made from a coyote that I shot (I'll let you pet it if you buy a book). I don't have a western jacket either, so I hope my buckskins will do (I'll let you play with the fringe if you buy a book).And if my articles stink so badly, why read them? If I think a writer stinks, I'm not wasting my valuable time reading his/her putrid rubbish from start to finish. I already know that fresh pileof doggie poo the puppy left on the carpet is going to stink, so I'm not going to sniff it.Another reader was irate because I won a couple of humor awards from the New England Outdoor Writers' Assoc. for 2008. "Only you would make a joke out of killing a small defenselessdeer - andyour ilk rewarded that story on top of it. You and your kind are callous and disgusting," M.S. said in reference to my story about shooting "teacup whitetails," one of the award-winners. M.S.went on to say, "You are the most politically incorrect writer I have ever read!"Well, my stories have won more than a dozen New England and national writing awards (many of them first place), so maybe you're the one who is lacking a sense of humor. Laughter is thebest medicine. Have a dose. Aint we got fun! I do have to agree with one thing. You hit the nail on the head - I ampolitically incorrect. And proud of it.I am a man who tells it like it is, whether readers like it or not. I don't write by anybody's standards except my own, and those of the newspaper of course, where I can't slander or useprofanity. I wear my heart on my sleeve and say what I feel and think. Anybody who cowers to political correctnessis a rump-smoocher in my book.The end of "My Way," as sung by Frank Sinatra, says it nicely:"For what is a man?What has he got?If not himselfThen he has notTo say the things he truly feelsAnd not the words of one who kneelsThe record showsI took the blowsAnd did it my way."*ED Note * - Marc Folco is the outdoor writer for The Standard Times. If you'd like to send him a "Thank You", (or hate mail), Contact him right here !Either way, we're thinking that if you send a thank you, he'll let you pet his coyote hat - on the other hand, if it's hate mail, bet you end up playing with the fringe on the buckskins !!!FOR ALL THE HORSE ENTHUSIASTS ! THE LATEST NEWS IN EQUINE LEGISLATION AFFECTING YOU !EquuiVox: the voice of horseownersIssue No. 3 ~ June, 2009News In This Issue:(click here to go to the website and read the full articles)United Organizations of the Horse has new web look to support H.O.R.S.E. ActActual bill language for the Humane and Optimal Restoration and Sustainabilityof Equines (H.O.R.S.E.) Act is being drafted by the US House of Representatives-Agricultural Committee Staff with the blessing ofChairman Colin Peterson, andshould be available by the 4th of July. Nonetheless, the United Organizationsof the Horse is using the Internet to spread its direct message about theissues, and the real solutions that are so necessary to ensure that Americanscan continue to enjoy horses for generations to come.We Need You!We need as many supporters as possible who are willing to lobby on our behalf,write letters, make calls, and be heard-we need quick and decisive financial
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