Hunting
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:
Caught in a crossfire of conflicting duties, California
Department of Fish and Wildlife director Boyd Gibbons resigned on
February 23 under pressure from governor Pete Wilson. Gibbons, on
the job for three years, was embarrassed February 14 when 1994 war-
den-of-the-year Will Bishop testified to the state Senate that political
favoritism had sabotaged his efforts to protect endangered salmon stocks.
The Indiana Natural Resources Commission on February 24
tentatively approved opening the state park system to hunts to reduce
animal populations, if the state Department of Natural Resources can
prove the alleged overpopulation has done ecological harm.
California assemblyman David Knowles has introduced a
bill to repeal Proposition 117, the 1990 referendum measure that banned
puma hunting.
The Connecticut legislature is to vote before April 7 on HB
5856 and SB 745, two bills to allow Sunday bowhunting.
A coalition of trappers, fox hunters, the Maryland Farm
Bureau, and the Professional Animal Workers Society on March 9
won passage of a bill to open coyote hunting and trapping in Maryland,
whose coyotes formerly had no legal status.
Oregon house majority leader Ray Baum (R-La Grande) has
introduced a bill to delay for two years implementation of the ban on use
of hounds and bait to hunt pumas and bears, approved by voters last fall,
Pennsyvlania state rep Lita Cohen (R-Montgomery County)
and 32 co-signers on February 14 reintroduced a bill to ban pigeon
shoots that was approved by a vote of 99-93 last year but didn’t go to the
state senate because it fell three votes short of winning a majority.
Texas HB 239, a bill to regulate canned hunts, has report-
edly been amended to, in effect, merely authorize the status quo, at the
behest of hunting lobbyist Gib Lewis, a former speaker of the Texas
house and convicted violator of hunting laws.
The Virginia legislature has approved SB 1040, a bill to ban
canned hunts, which must be signed or vetoed by Governor George
Allen before April 15. Letters of support for the bill may be addressed to
Allen c/o State Capitol, Richmond, VA 23219.
A bill to ban fox, deer, and rabbit hunting in Britain won
approval in the House of Commons on March 3, 253-0, but failed to
gain a majority in the 650-member body, and is expected to be killed
because it does not have the support of the Conservative government.
After the Chamber of Commerce in Gillette, Wyoming,
announced it wouldn’t hold a coyote-killing contest this year, a local
hunting ranch held one in secret on February 11-12, sending invitations
to last year’s participants. About two dozen coyotes were slain.
A bullet apparently fired by a deer poacher hit Lynn
Davison, 39, in the head the night of February 26 as she lay in bed in
her home in Charlestown Township, Pennsylvania. The shot did exten-
sive damage to the bones on the right side of her face, but she is recover-
ing. Her husband, who was beside her, and their three children, ages 2,
4, and 7, were shaken but not physically injured.
