Alleged sportsmen

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court
ruled 6-0 on September 27 that hunting is
not a constitutionally protected right. Two
duck hunters cited for exceeding bag limits
had contended that the Pennsylvania Game
Commission unconstitutionally links prosecutorial
and judicial functions in the appeals
process for accused game law violators.
Judge Wilhelm Hart of Hardin
County Municipal Court in Ohio ruled
recently that since religion does not compel
the Amish to hunt deer, the Ohio requirement
that hunters must wear blaze orange does not
violate the Amish taboo against wearing
bright colors. Brothers Samuel and Joas
Bontrager of Kenton, Ohio, held that their
faith exempted them from wearing orange.

Joseph Callais, of Chalmette,
Lousiana, on September 19 became––apparently––the
first person accused of violating
the new state law against selling fish caught
under a recreational permit. The law, which
also bans gill-netting, was adopted to protect
declining redfish stocks.
Ruling on September 29 in
response to a suit brought by humane officer
Keith Mohler, of Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania, Common Pleas Judge Todd
Hoover, after viewing video of the 1994
Erdman Sportsmen’s Association pigeon
shoot, ordered the association to allow only
experienced adults to kill wounded birds at
this year’s shoot, held October 1; barred
kicking, swinging, stomping, and slamming
wounded birds; required shoot staff to search
surrounding areas for wounded birds; and
required state police to monitor compliance.
Sixteen Norwegian sealers on
October 1 filed a $381,700 libel suit against
TV-2 in Oslo, Sweden, for the February
1989 broadcast of an anti-sealing film made
by Swedish freelance journalist Bo Landin
and former Norwegian sealing inspector Odd
Lindberg. Norway suspended the hunting of
newborn seals, called whitecoats, due to
international outcry over clubbing scenes that
the sealers say were filmed in Newfoundland.
Organized Fisherman of Florida
in August sued 16 TV stations in five cities
for airing allegedly misleading ads in support
of the Florida ban on commercial gill net use,
adopted by referendum in November 1994.
The ban took effect July 1.
Alistair Jackson, southeast
region spokesperson for the British Field
Sports Society, was charged with assault on
October 7 for allegedly punching a hunt saboteur
at a Cattistock Foxhunt cubbing meet.
East Northants Against Bloodsports
leader Clive Richardson on October
8 won a judicial ruling that the Woodland
Pytchley Foxhunt must disclose their tax
returns and other details of their financial
affairs in order to sue him for damages. Four
days later, arson damaged a trailer belonging
to Richardson, parked outside his home––
reportedly the fourth violent attack on his person
and property since December 1993.