A
2014:
The
YEAR
of the
BALLOT
ISSUE?
8
s sportsmen and women are gearing up for the year
ahead, the fight for the future of hunting appears headed
for the ballot box next fall as ballot issues are popping up
from coast to coast. While the November election might
seem far off, hunters and trappers across the country are
hard at work preparing for the upcoming battles.
In July, we reported on the ongoing fight over Michigan’s wolf
management program. Now, sportsmen are staring down
the barrel of two ballot initiatives that seek to bar the state
from designating wolves as a game species. Sportsmen,
not willing to sit idly by, have begun to fight back – and are
circulating petitions for a citizen-initiated law to counter the
anti’s efforts. If successful, the law would ensure the ability
of the state’s Natural Resources Commission to designate
game species.
In Maine, sportsmen scored a clear victory in the legislature
this spring when we defeated a bill that would have banned
bear hunting with dogs and bear trapping. Following that
decisive loss, the animal-rights community began gathering
signatures to place a question on the Nov. 2014 ballot.
This latest effort would ban bear hunting with dogs, bear
trapping and hunting bears with bait. Flying under the
banner of “Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting,” the anti’s
reported raising $705,844 in their latest campaign finance
report. Not surprisingly, $700,000 of that total came from
the Humane Society of the United States, the country’s
largest anti-hunting group.
Sportsmen’s Monthly January 2014