LAW SUIT UPDATES
Polar Bear Hunting Ban Moves Forward in Congress –
Call your Congressmen Now to Oppose
The so-called “Polar Bear Protection Act” was added to an Interior Appropriations Bill late last night by Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island. This bill would ban the importation of trophies of polar bears legally taken from healthy populations in Canada. Stand-alone bills H.R. 2327 and S.R. 1406 would do the same thing. Sportsmen’s groups, including SCI, have sent a letter to Congress urging them to consider the facts and not support this bill on its emotional appeal. The attached letter and "Myths vs. Facts" document explain the whole issue in detail.
An import ban would harm polar bear conservation and management and would do nothing to reduce the number of polar bears harvested in Canada. The native communities who own the polar bear "tags" assigned to them by the Canadian government would simply use the tags for subsistence purposes if they couldn't sell the tags to American hunters. A ban also would severely harm the economic well-being of the native communities that must live with the polar bear on a day-to-day basis, taking away millions of dollars from their economy, which provides the incentive for polar bear conservation and research. SCI, the NRA, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, and others are fighting this legislation as it makes its way to the Senate Floor. Calls, letters, and e-mails to your representatives in Congress to oppose these anti-hunting bill would help. Find your legislator at http://www.senate.gov/ or http://www.house.gov/ . We will keep you posted.
Sporting and Conservation Groups’ Opposition to So-called “Polar Bear Protection Act,” H.R. 2327 and S.R. 1406
June 27, 2007
Thanks to strong lobbying by SCI, NRA, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation and others, a proposed amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill was defeated by a vote of 188-242. This amendment, sponsored by Rep. Inslee (D-WA) and Rep. LoBiondo (R-NJ), would have prevented the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from processing permit applications for the importation of polar bears into the United States. This would effectively stop American hunters from going to Canada and would deal a serious blow to Canadian efforts to conserve the bear. It would also destroy the source of funding (from the permit fees) for polar bear research in the U.S. and Russia. The effort over the last few days on both sides of the issue has been intense, including newspaper ads, letters, lobbying and calls to action to numerous legislators. SCI and the other groups worked hard to counter the misinformation campaign and emotional, non-scientific arguments put forth by anti-hunting legislators and groups. SCI also put together a website to dispel the myths discussed in the anti-hunting rhetoric and to focus on just the facts. Please visit that site at www.polarbearfacts.org . We've won a major battle, but not the war. We must now try to keep the Senate from adopting a similar amendment into their version of the Interior Appropriations Bill. Work will continue in the Senate to make sure that this bad idea never sees the light of day.
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Mexico Bans Polar Bear Hunting
Apparently the U.S. wasn’t the only country with polar bears on their mind this month. A law passed the Congress in Mexico recently that will prohibit any hunting or importation of any ‘sea mamiphers’ which specifically includes the polar bear. The law was promoted by the green group Partido Verde Ecologista Mexicano. The Mexican hunting federation, Federacion Mexicana De Caza, or FEMECA, will begin work to overturn this law. SCI is affiliated with FEMECA and we will keep you posted.
(Source: FEMECA)
PLEASE CONTACT RICK FOR AVAILABLE OPENINGS AND PERMITS
RickHerscher@aol.com
(954) 540-2523
GOOD HUNTING!
Rick Herscher
Alaska Hunting Safaris
Alaska Hunting Safaris
Phone - 954-540-2523
RickHerscher@AOL.com
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