Colorado faced legislation that would have banned all mountain lion , bobcat and lynx hunting . It had a real chance of moving through the legislature , but was shot down in committee after sportsmen made calls , sent emails and showed up to rally on the capitol steps the day of the hearing .
Like California , Arizona and Colorado face the real possibility of ballot initiatives in the near future that accomplish these goals .
The attacks are nothing new . But while the coordination , rehearsed talking points and array of attacks came fast and furious — petitions , legislation and public comment periods were all used simultaneously — the arguments have evolved in a very dangerous way .
The animal-rights movement is attempting to usurp the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and , if we ’ re not diligent , they might just be successful .
ORIGINS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MODEL The roots of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation ( NAMWC ) reach back to the early 20th century as remedies to the unabashed exploitation of habitats and wildlife . Early conservationists and environmentalists recognized the unsustainable nature of societal demands on the resources ; everything from unregulated logging to market hunting threatened habitats and wildlife nationwide . Those forefathers of conservation and environmentalism reasoned that if man were the problem , ultimately man held the solution .
The Lacey Act of 1900 , which brought an end to market hunting , was the first federal law protecting wildlife . From that point forward , conservationists began to create rules around hunting and fishing . Season dates and bag limits , the creation of the federal duck stamp and state hunting licenses , the Migratory Bird Act and other regulatory approaches began to create the system as we know it today .
Eventually , seven guiding principles formed the backbone of the NAMWC . Each tenet corrected a wildlife management mistake of the past or protected the model from corruption by special interests , such as wealthy citizens , large landowners or those opposed to hunting .
For 100 years the NAMWC has been responsible for not just recovering decimated game populations , but for the flourishment of those populations in today ’ s ever-shrinking habitats . A self-funding mechanism drives the model to the tune of nearly $ 3 billion per year in just license sales and federal excise taxes . By any measure , the model is a success and has become the standard of wildlife management worldwide .
Despite the obvious successes of the NAMWC , animalrights activists are attempting to corrupt tenets of the model to advance their agenda . And they ’ re finding success using verbiage from our own principles to do so .
Science-based wildlife management relies on factual research , something animal-rights advocates ignore in their emotional pleas .
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