FROM THE PRESIDENT when that fails, take the case to court or try to buy an election.
hope you enjoy this month’ s look into the playbook of
I the anti-hunting movement. Over the past four decades, the Sportsmen’ s Alliance has fought hard against these tactics. During that time, trends have emerged that indicate where the next attack will come.
In the Maine bear campaign of 2013-14, for example, the Humane Society of the United States hoped to capitalize on their 2012 victory to ban bear hunting with dogs in California. They turned their sights to the east coast. Maine stands out as a major hunting destination, but southern Maine has slowly become a de facto suburb of Boston – and HSUS thought they could exploit the influx of people from Massachusetts to steal hunting rights from all Mainers.
First they tried to pass a bill to ban bear hunting. Fortunately, the legislature saw through the emotional rhetoric and sided with science. Following their game plan, HSUS turned their attention to the public; launching a public-relations campaign followed by a petition drive to place the issue before voters.
After spending nearly $ 3 million to ban bear hunting, it became clear that HSUS would not win. So they filed a lawsuit to try to force our campaign’ s television advertisements off the air.
This is straight from their playbook: try to convince unsuspecting legislators to pass their radical agenda, and
MESSAGE
FROM THE PRESIDENT when that fails, take the case to court or try to buy an election.
The ground-work for the next round of battles is being laid out West right now. These organizations are in the early stages of pushing a PR campaign on mountain lions – hoping to capitalize on the“ Cecil” the lion fervor – and have released a propaganda-filled“ report” identifying five states in their sights.
They’ re probing state wildlife agencies with Freedom of Information Requests looking for weak spots. Next, I bet they’ ll take this campaign to Western state legislatures, the courts and eventually the ballot box. After all, that’ s their game plan.
Evan Heusinkveld | President and CEO
May | 2016 SPORTSMEN’ S MONTHLY
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