Tag: Anne Muller

Activists File Suit Over New York Hunting Training Courses

Several New York-based groups, including the NY Whale and Dolphin ActionLeague and the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting announced in August that they were filing a lawsuit against the New York State Department of Conservation’s offerings of hunter training courses.

The hunting courses are divided into four areas — Hunter ED, Bowhunter Ed, Trapper Ed, and Waterfowl ID — and new hunters are required to pass the appropriate course before they can be granted a license to hunt or trap in New York State.

Animal rights activists in New York have formed a new group, Coalition for the Ethical Use of Public Money, to sue the state on the grounds that providing such courses is a discriminatory use of taxpayer funds. In a press release put out by Animal Defenders of Westchester, NY Whale and Dolphin Action League director Taffy Williams said,

We find the use of public funds to train hunters and bow hunters a misuse, discriminatory and unethical management of public funds. . . also, the use of taxpayer funds for hunting-related activities is a discriminatory use of public monies, since there are no programs to benefit birdwatchers, kayakers, nature-enthusiasts, etc. The link between hunting and other forms of violence has been established in such sources as the Journal of Interpersonal Violence (B.W.Boat, June 1995) and the Purdue University Press (Child abuse, Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse, 1999).

Similarly, the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting’s president, Anne Muller, said in a press release,

Towns should be frowning upon the DEC’s practice of building wildlife populations for hunting. The Bureau of Wildlife is running a private hunting business on taxpayer money. The excise taxes on firearms, bows and arrows are insufficient to pay for their sport of killing animals. (New York State is required to match 25% of the federal excise tax that is contributed to the State.) All of the Bureau of Wildlife’s overhead costs are paid out of the general fund.

The courses at issue are free to individual hunters, and according to the DEC’s website,

New York’s Sportsman Education Programs are supported in part by Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration, funded by your purchases of hunting equipment. Additional funding comes from sales of hunting and trapping licenses. Hunters and trappers pay for Sportsman Education and wildlife conservation.

Source:

Hunters under fire for abuse of taxpayer money. Press Release, Animal Defenders of Westchester, August 16, 2004.

NYS DEC Running Free Hunting Training Course. Press Release, Animal Defenders of Westchester, Undated (Accessed September 16, 2004).

Sportsman Education Classes. Press Release, New York State Department of Conservation, Accessed September 16, 2004.

Animal Rights Activists: Prevent Terrorism — Stop Hunting

A New York-based animal rights group called Wildlife Watch is attempting to exploit the 9/11 terrorist attacks to push its anti-hunting agenda. According to Wildlife Watch, terrorists could use hunting season to launch terrorist attacks (I’m not making this up).

According to Wildlife Watch’s Anne Muller, hunting “is just a wonderful opportunity for someone who would want to do a terrorist act. They don’t have to report their whereabouts and can be lurking anywhere. They can lurk in groups.” The group elaborated on that view in a press release saying,

Armed and camouflaged individuals can get close to chemical, agricultural, business facilities, gas pipelines, electrical powerlines, substations, transformers and airports. Local police and environmental conservation officers will merely slough off concerns saying that the individuals are ‘just hunting.’

For its part, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation understands the real message that Wildlife Watch is trying to communicate. “We take our direction from law enforcement professionals, not groups that would attempt to use the war on terrorism to advance their own agenda,” said spokesman Peter Constant.

Wildlife Watch posted a message on an animal rights e-mail list recently asking people to send letters to various New York officials demanding a suspension of the hunting season, which is scheduled to begin on Nov. 19. It included a sample letter which, among other things, said,

Hunting is not a necessity, true subsistence hunters (those who depend on the meat) are less than 1/10th of 1% of the population. Because the wildlife management agencies are benefiting, and their bureaucratic survival depends on the use of firearms and ammunition, it is they who are putting the rest of us at risk. Their claim that hunting conditions pose no threat to the welfare of society is self-serving and doesn’t allow us to prevent against possible terrorist occurrences.

Actually, from here it seems like the animal rights activists who are desperately trying to convince the public that they are still relevant.

Source:

N.Y. wildlife group calls hunting a terror threat. Fox News, November 10, 2001.

Letters needed to suspend hunting in NY State. Wildlife Watch, e-mail communication, November 14, 2001.