2014: The Year of the Ballot Issue?

Posted on January 10, 2014

As 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 $705,000 in their last 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.  The HSUS is number one on the USSA’s Dirty Dozen list of animal rights groups.

“While the anti’s may try to hide behind a suggestive name, sportsmen nationwide won’t be fooled by who the real proponents are of these efforts,” said  Evan Heusinkveld, USSA vice president of government affairs.  “National animal rights and other anti-hunting groups are leading these efforts – and they’re out to ban all hunting and trapping.”

In the west, trappers in Montana and Oregon are also facing potential fights of their own.

In Montana, an anti-trapping group named “Footloose Montana” is again circulating petitions to place Initiative 167 on the ballot which would ban trapping on all public lands.   While “Footloose Montana” failed to qualify a similar initiative in 2010, they have renewed their efforts with an eye on next November’s election.

Along the same lines, an Oregon anti-trapping group was circulating petitions in an effort ban trapping in the state.  The group “TrapFree Oregon” recently announced they would be postponing their efforts until 2016.

Overall, 2014 is shaping up to be a year dominated by political battles at the ballot box.  It is vital that sportsmen in these states and others work together to stop these attacks on our heritage.

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