WILD BILL

Humane Society, Idaho Sportsmen, and Game Farmers: A Strange Affair

By Bill Schneider, 1-25-07

	Image courtesy The Human Society of the United States.

Last week, I posted a short item about a strange turn of events in the ongoing battle to ban game farming in Idaho. A game farm owner accused the Idaho Sportsman’s Caucus Advisory Council (ISCAC), made up of the most pro-hunting people on earth, of being aligned with anti-hunters.

First off, this little spat sends out a big message. And second, after thinking about it for a few days, I wonder if a little alignment between hunters and animal rightists could be just exactly what both groups need to do.

This grew out of an unauthorized notice posted on the HSUS website saying the animal rights group and ISCAC were “teaming up” to fight for a ban on canned hunts. Officers of the two groups did have a conversation, but there was no formal “teaming up,” and ISCAC has asked HSUS for a retraction. Since the article, the notice has disappeared from the Idaho Human Society website.

This “misunderstanding” says something really bad about game farming and canned hunts. Lost in the debate was the fact that both the people who loathe hunting and people who live to hunt want exactly the same thing--a sudden and complete end to canned hunts, the embarrassing practice of shooting domestic elk and other wildlife in high-fence enclosures. Instead of fighting each other over the merits of hunting, the two normally polarized groups are working, albeit separately, for the same goal. Before going to the next paragraph, think about that for a minute.

This should send Idaho legislators a strong message that quite a large majority of their constituents disapprove of game farming and especially canned hunts, which occur on most of them.

I went to the HSUS website and read what the animal rights group had to say about canned hunts. What I read there could have easily been reprinted on ISCAC website. Here is a sample; ask yourself whether this could be on the ISCAC website:

“There is no more repugnant hunting practice than shooting tame, exotic mammals in fenced enclosures for a fee in order to obtain a trophy. There is no sport to this activity, because the animals are confined, and the kills are often guaranteed. The rules of “fair chase” that govern hunting forbid baiting waterfowl, spotlighting deer, hunting from motorized vehicles, and hunting from aircraft. Canned hunting violates the concepts of fair chase and sportsmanship, and should be banned.”

On this issue at least, the two groups are, in fact, aligned, even if neither wants to admit it in public. And both should consider this good news.

This affair also brought back a little nostalgia for me. I’ve been writing about outdoor issues, including hunting, since the early 1970s. The first article I ever sold to a magazine was about the rapidly growing anti-hunting movement and the threat it posed to legitimate sport hunting. After several more articles and many more years, I have gotten over my fear that animal rightists will put an end to the sport of hunting.

Now, I believe it would be so much better for both groups to set the emotional issue of hunting aside and work together on many common goals, like an end to game farming and canned hunts, but that is hardly the only slice of common ground. Both groups enjoy viewing nongame wildlife, for example, and can collaborate on wildlife watching and habitat protection that always benefits all wildlife, not only charismatic game animals. Both hunters and nonhunters, including anti-hunters, want our roadless lands to remain roadless, so why not work together toward this goal instead of hating each other because of our theosophical divide over hunting? Both groups would benefit from wildland preservation, but you rarely see any collaboration because of precisely what happened in the ISCAC/HSUS tryst. Somebody stands up and says they can’t stomach jumping in bed with the devil, and the promise of mutual benefit quickly disappears.

In this affair, game farmers tried to use the web notice to embarrass and discredit ISCAC and distract lawmakers from the real issues at hand. Ironically, I can easily see the same don’t-align-with-the-enemy fear voiced within the ranks of the HSUS.

I suffer no illusion that officers of the two groups will become beer-drinking buddies, but how hard (smart?) would it be to ask for each other’s help to accomplish a goal than neither group can accomplish separately?

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