Tag: Pennsylvania

Maine Governor Comes Out Against Anti-Bear Hunting Initiative

In a talk to sportsmen, Maine Gov. John Baldacci expressed his opposition to a proposed initiative that would ban bear baiting, hunting bear with dogs, and bear trapping in that state.

With the help of the Humane Society of the United States and other animal rights groups, Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting has been working to place such an initiative on the ballot in Maine. They have collected more than 100,000 signatures, virtually guaranteeing that it will be on the November 2004 ballot unless the state legislature adopts the initiative on its own first.

Baldacci, speaking at a meeting of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, said,

Groups, funded by out-of-state organizations committed to ending hunting, are backing a referendum that would make it illegal to hunt bear with dogs, to hunt bears with bait or to trap bears. They believe they know better than the state’s biologist and animal management professionals how Maine should manage our wildlife resources. They have gotten out early to tell their story to Maine voters. We need to tell our story.

HSUS maintains that baiting, trapping and hunting with dogs are not necessary. In a press release on the ballot initiative, it said,

The recreational hounding, baiting and trapping of bears is unnecessary. Most bear hunting states do not allow these unsporting methods, yet hunters in the states are able to hunt bears without them. Pennsylvania, for example, prohibits baiting, hounding and trapping bears, yet hunters there kill more than 2,000 black bears annually.

Recently, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington approved similar ballot measures to ban cruel bear hunting practices. Statistics from these states prove that inhumane practices are not necessary to control bear populations, as hunters are able to kill the same number of bears without them.

The full text of the ballot initiative can be read here.

Sources:

Baldacci backs vote against bear-bait ban. Misty Edgecomb, Bangor Daily News, December 6, 2003.

Baldacci opposes bear referendum Says current hunting laws benefit biologists. Dwayne Rioux, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, December 6, 2003.

Maine: Initiative to Ban the Baiting, Hounding, and Trapping of Bears. Press Release, Humane Society of the United States, 2003.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Turns Back Challenge to Pigeon Shoot

On January 2, 2004, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court released a one-sentence ruling denying efforts by a Pennsylvania human officer who had sought a preliminary injunction against a planned pigeon shoot at the Pike Township Sportsmen’s Association.

Humane officer Johnna Seeton argued in court that the pigeon shoots violated Pennsylvania animal cruelty laws, but the Superior Court of Berks County had previously ruled that the pigeon shoots did not violate the animal cruelty statute. Seeton is the chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Animal Network, which over the years has worked for a wide range of animal rights causes and projects.

Animal rights activists succeed in shutting down the large Hegins pigeon shoot in 1999, but a number of smaller pigeon shoots continue in Pennsylvania.

The Fund for Animals, which crusaded for years against the Hegins shoot, issued a press release following the Supreme Court decisions saying,

The Fund argues that pigeon shoots violate Pennsylvania’s anti-cruelty statute because thousands of birds are intentionally injured and left to suffer with their wounds, sometimes for days, without any medical treatment. “We are able to stop this barbaric and inhumane practice in Hegins and it should be stopped throughout Pennsylvania,” said [Fund President Heidi] Prescott. “Unfortunately, although hundreds of violations of Pennsylvania’s cruelty statute take place at these live pigeon shoots throughout the year, several pigeon shoot cases have been languishing in the courts for over a decade. If the courts are not going to take action to stop this cruel and illegal practice, the legislature must step up and bring the Commonwealth in line with the vast majority of states that already [sic] bans such barbaric practices.”

Sources:

Pennsylvania State Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Appeal to Stop Cruel and Inhumane Pigeon Shoots. Press Release, Fund for Animals, January 8, 2004.

Appeal To Halt Cruel Pigeon Shoots Rejected. Animal News Center, January 17, 2004.

ALF/ELF Claim Responsibility for Pennyslvania Mink Farm Fire

Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front activists claimed responsibility this week for a Nov. 26 fire at a mink farm in Eerie, Pennsylvania.

The fire destroyed a barn at the mink farm. An anonymous e-mail issued by the group threatned that if the owner of the farm doesn’t abandon the mink business, “the rest of the mink ranch WILL be demolished.”

Farm owner Forrest Mindek issued a response through Fur Comission USA saying,

It’s bad enough that they try to destroy our livelihood, but they put the lives of our animals, our family and the firefighters at risk

The e-mail also claimed responsibility for the release of foxes from an Eerie fox ranch in June; the release of mink from a fur farm in New York in September; the destruction of two genetically modified plant demsontration sites in Pennsylvania; an Aug. 11 fire at the Northeast Research Station in the Allegheny National Forest that did $700,000 in damage; and the March 2002 destruction of a construction crane in Eerie that did an estimated $500,000 in damage.

Well, if these activists wanted the attention of law enforcement, I suspect they just got it.

Source:

Environmental, animal groups claim responsibility for mink farm fire. Dan Nephin, The Associated Press, December 3, 2002.

PETA Threatened to Violently Disrupt Church Pig Roast

A recent story about a threatened protest by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals continued PETA’s foray into open advocacy of “direct action” with Bruce Friedrich threatening to overturn tables at a church fundraiser if the church did not cave in to PETA’s demands.

Hibernia United Methodist Church in West Brandywine Township, Pennsylvania, planned a September pig roast as a fund raiser. Friedrich responded that the roasting a pig was not a Christian thing to do.

Friedrich told The Philadelphia Inquirer that PETA had offered to ship meat-free items, but that if the pig roast when on as planned,

. . . in good Christian tradition, we will probably bear witness of some sort . . . although I wouldn’t rule out turning over tables.

Hmmm . . . do as PETA says or risk having thugs like Friedrich show up to overturn tables. Sounds an awful lot like extortion, doesn’t it?

Source:

Activists to church: Serve vegetarian menu or else. Sandy Bauers, The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 19, 2002.

Earth Liberation Front Claims U.S. Forest Service Fire and Endorses Personal Violence

In an anonymous e-mail sent to the Warren Times Observer this weekend, the Earth Liberation Front claimed credit for an August 11 fire that did more than $700,000 in damage to a U.S. Forest Service facility in Pennsylvania.

Work is already underway to repair damage to the 40-year-old federal Forest Sciences Laboratory. Susan Stout, project leader at the laboratory, described the sort of heinous research the laboratory conducts that the Earth Liberation Front probably objected to,

We perceive ourselves as doing research to promote sustainable stewardship of hardwood forests in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. It seems like an agenda people should be in favor of.

The laboratory has, for example, studied the impact of deer on hardwood forests and has a 20-year old ongoing study of the effects of acid rain on the decline of sugar maple trees.

In the anonymous e-mail, the ELF threatened to return and destroy the building if it were repaired. In addition the group said,

While innocent life will never be harmed in any action we undertake, where it is necessary, we will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice, and provide the needed protection for our planet that decades of legal battles, pleading, protest and economic sabotage have failed so drastically to achieve.

A reward of $5,000 is being offered for anyone with information on the culprits, and a 24-hour hotline has been set up at 1-888-283-3473 for reporting any leads or tips in the case.

Source:

Radical group says it set fire at Forest Service research facility. Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 4, 2002.

Fund for Animals Can't Shoot Straight on Worst Canned Hunts

The Fund for Animals today sent out a press release listing the “Top Ten States with the Cruelest Canned Hunts.” According to The Fund,

The states making The Fund’s “top ten” list are: Texas, Michigan,
Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, Maine, Missouri, New Mexico,
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana. Although advertised under a variety
of names—most frequently “hunting preserves,” “game ranches,” or
“shooting preserves”—canned hunts violate the hunting community’s
standard of “fair chase” by confining animals to cages or fenced
enclosures. The types of animals killed can range from native species
such as elk and deer to exotic animals such as zebras, Corsican rams,
blackbuck antelope, and water buffalo.

Apparently compiling that list of ten states stretched The Fund for Animals’ limited research capabilities. A few hours after releasing it, Fund media coordinator Tracey McIntire was forced to send out a correction that read,

The list of the states with the worst canned hunts should NOT include
New Mexico and Kentucky.

Oops. No word on which states would take New Mexico and Kentucky’s places. The odds are good, however, that The Fund for Animals would be well at home on a list of top 10 animal rights groups that can never seem to get their act together.

Sources:

The Fund For Animals Announces The Top Ten States With The Cruelest Canned Hunts. The Fund for Animals, Press Release, August 12, 2002.

Correction on press release. Tracey McIntire, The Fund for Animals, August 12, 2002.