Trapline Journal Weblog

(Columbus, OH) - The nation’s leading advocate of sportsmen’s rights is announcing the creation of a fund with the sole purpose of combating the world’s number-one anti-hunting organization.

Money collected by the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) through the new Sportsmen Against HSUS fund will be used in the continuing battle against the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and its animal rights campaign.

The Sportsmen Against HSUS fund is designed to:

* mount a national campaign which will focus on educating the media, elected officials, the public, sportsmen and the many others targeted by the animal rights group, and

* fund the campaigns that combat the public policy threats initiated and supported by the HSUS. The HSUS lobbying machine claims to have played a role in getting 86 different state laws passed in 2007 alone. The group also filed more than a dozen new lawsuits in 2007.

Wayne Pacelle, who claims to be a vegan, and is an anti-hunting advocate and president and CEO of HSUS, recently said, “Let’s raise at least $10,000 right now, with $5,000 to go to pets who are the victims of foreclosures and an additional $5,000 to fight the horrible wildlife abuses that the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance loves.”

The HSUS is America’s leading opponent of hunting, fishing, trapping and scientific wildlife management. It led the charge in a 2006 ballot campaign to ban dove hunting in Michigan, contributing $1.6 million to the effort. Among other voter issues, it also took the lead in the 1994 ballot campaign to ban cougar and bear hunting with hounds and bait in Oregon. It opposes hunting on National Wildlife Refuges and other public lands. It has filed lawsuits to impede the management of gray wolves and grizzly bears.

Some current policy attacks on sportsmen’s rights by the HSUS include:

* the launching of a campaign to address so-called “puppy mills,” abusive large-scale commercial dog breeding operations. Using sentimental images of suffering puppies, the organization is backing legislation in Pennsylvania that would devastate small hobby breeders, dog show kennels and sporting dog enthusiasts. The legislation is so radical that it has been opposed by the American Kennel Club, United Kennel Club and even dog rescue shelters in the state.

* a mandatory spay and neuter bill in California, which would require all dogs be spayed or neutered by the age of six months, making it nearly impossible for sportsmen with mixed-breed sporting dogs to remain in business.

The USSA is taking the fight to the HSUS after its continuous attacks against sportsmen’s rights.

“The name Humane Society disingenuously implies that the organization is in the business of taking care of stray dogs and cats,” said USSA president Bud Pidgeon. “The HSUS does nothing to make the public think otherwise when tugging at the heartstrings of Americans when asking for donations.”

It is more important than ever that all sportsmen unite to combat the principal enemy of American conservation and the outdoor sports that make conservation possible, he said.

Pacelle has a sordid history of leading the anti-hunting crusade. When he was the national director of the Fund for Animals, which has since merged with HSUS, he was quoted as saying, “We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United States …”

Pacelle has let the public in on the agenda of the HSUS, saying, “More money will mean more pet protection, but also more ballot initiatives to restrict inhumane and unsporting hunting practices, more state legislation, more local ordinances.”

To contribute to the Sportsmen Against HSUS fund, please contact the USSA at 801 Kingsmill Parkway, Columbus, Ohio, 43229. For more information call (614) 888-4868, or email info@ussportsmen.org.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen’s organizations that protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs. For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website www.ussportsmen.org .

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This site is no longer on the Trapping WebRing. In WebRings April Newsletter, they announced their support and encouraged others to support the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Trapline Journal will not support a group whose goal is to outlaw trapping, hunting, fishing, rodeo, circus and other legal uses of animals.

Kraig Kaatz, president of National Trappers Association is interviewed on Episode #43 of HuntCast - The Outdoors Show. HuntCast is an online outdoors show using MP3 format. The NTA interview starts around the 16 minute mark. Dialup users beware.

HuntCast can be found at http://huntcast.blogspot.com.

eBay is revising it’s gun policy to ban the sale of any part that is used in the firing of a gun. This includes bullet tips, brass casings and shells, barrels, slides, cylinders, magazines, firing pins, trigger assemblies and more. Gun parts sellers are already being banned and their PayPal accounts frozen. Trappers and trap supply dealers who sell legal trapping equipment have been dealing with vague rules and auctions being cancelled with no apparent consistency for some time now.

There are other auction sites that support the 2nd amendment, like http://www.auctionarms.com and http://www.gunbroker.com. Auction Arms is running a limited-time special for abandoned eBay sellers.

Many gun sellers are abandoning eBay and PayPal over this new restriction. An electronic petition against this new policy has been setup at http://www.petitiononline.com/ebay0001/petition.html

Trapline Journal and Hunters Notebook will be available on Auction Arms and Gun Broker in the near future.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a 24-page report titled 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.

Some interesting survey results for 2006:

• More than 87 million Americans, or 38 percent of the United States’ population age 16 or older hunted, fished or observed wildlife.
• They spent $120 billion that year pursuing those activities which is roughly equivalent to one out of every 100 dollars of goods and services produced in our economy.
• 12.5 million hunters spent $22.7 billion last year. Although hunter and fisherman numbers are slightly declining, expenditures are increasing.
• Hunting of animals such as coyote, fox and raccoon attracted 1.1 million hunters who spent 15.2 million days afield.

The entire report can be found here
http://library.fws.gov/nat_survey2006.pdf

The following is Breaking News by the US Sportsmen’s Alliance. To have these alerts sent to your email account, sign up on the USSA website http://www.ussportsmen.org

(Columbus) – Microsoft has rejected a U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance request to abandon its partnership with the nation’s leading anti-hunting organization.

Microsoft, the software giant, will make a $100,000 donation to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and is partnering with the group on a pilot program called the i’m Initiative. Through the new program, whenever a Windows Live Messenger user has a conversation using i’m, Microsoft will give a portion of the program’s advertising revenue to one of ten organizations selected by the user. The HSUS is one of the choices, and there is no limit to the amount of money that can be donated.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, the nation’s leading sportsmen’s advocacy organization, has urged Microsoft to end its support of HSUS, but the company refused. According to Microsoft representative Tara Kriese, Microsoft believes the i’m Initiative is “a great way to enable people to help causes that are important to them.”

“Microsoft is going to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably more, into an organization that recently issued a manifesto that targets hunting for extinction,” said USSA President Bud Pidgeon. “If there was ever a time for sportsmen to take grassroots action, this is it.”

Sportsmen should contact Microsoft and demand that its financial support of HSUS be terminated. Contact Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft, 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052. Phone: (425) 882-8080. Fax: (425) 936-7329.

The Humane Society of the United States opposes all animal use, including trapping, hunting and fishing. It was a key player in the campaigns to outlaw dove hunting in Michigan, trapping in California, and black bear hunting in Colorado. The organization has created a hit list of hunting traditions that it hopes to dismantle, including bear hunting and hunting with hounds.

“The HSUS already has a multi-million dollar budget that it invests in legislative and ballot campaigns to ban trapping and hunting,” said Pidgeon. “The partnership that it has formed with Microsoft, the maker of the Xbox, will allow the organization to make money hand over fist, and continue to fund efforts to ban outdoor sports.”

Sportsmen can make a difference in an issue like this. Companies such as Iams, General Mills, Accor Hotels, Pet Safe, Sears, and Ace Hardware ended relationships with HSUS after thousands of sportsmen levied strong protest.

In 2002, Jeep raised the ire of sportsmen when it aired a blatantly, anti-hunting commercial called the “Deer Hunter.” After a flood of sportsmen’s contacts, Jeep pulled the commercial in three days.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen’s organization that protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs. For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website, http://www.ussportsmen.org.

A good way introduce trapping to the general public is to run trapping booths or exhibits at community gatherings such as county fairs, local sportsmen’s group events, old timer days, Boy Scout meetings and Girl Scout meetings. On a national level, the US Sportsmens Alliance holds Trailblazer events in nearly every state and are always looking for volunteers.

An interesting display can be made of a few tanned furs of furbearers local to your area, some cleaned and whitened skulls, old and new traps and some literature handouts. Giveaways are always popular, and besides literature handouts, state game and fish commissions can usually supply pencils, stickers or other small items as free hand outs.

A trap throw gives the kids and teens something exciting to do. A few 2×4’s, a heavy tarp for a back stop, several set traps hanging from wire or bungee cord and a few baseballs is all the materials needed. The kids throw the balls at the set traps and when the pan is hit, the trap jaws close and hold the ball. Prizes such as teeth from coyotes and bobcats, feathers or inexpensive toys can be given. This can also be used as a fund raiser where you charge a few dollars for throws. Of course the prizes must be a little more substantial if charging people to participate.

Given the chance, most people enjoy looking at and touching furs and talking about their own fur trapping experiences or encounters with predators and furbearers. It’s quick and easy to destroy fur trapping myths about sharp toothed and sharp jawed traps, broken legs, animal injury and human injury. Doing a demo set and sticking your gloved hand in a trap immediately shows people that traps aren’t the destructive devices that some people portray them as. Most people will carry this to the next step with “Well if I was lied to about traps, what other lies about animal use have I been told?”.

You don’t have to give away all of your secrets or draw a maps to your honey holes, but giving the general public basic, hands-on information about fur trapping can go along way with clearing up misinformation and myths. These people will likely never set a trap but most vote or will someday.

JC Penneys and Neiman-Marcus, among others are being criticized for using dog fur in some of their clothing items. It is extremely unlikely they are knowingly using domestic dog fur, which would be a federal crime.

The fur in question is from a furbearer named raccoon dog, which is no more a pet than a common raccoon. Using this animals last name is just another example of groups using mis-information and emotion to force their way of life on others.

The raccoon dog is a wild canine (similar to fox, coyote) with a healthy population in eastern Asia and parts of Europe.

Support retailers who use real fur in their clothing lines by buying their  products and writing letters, emails, etc of encouragement when they are faced with these intimidation tactics.

Hunter, trapper, gun-nut and rock-n-roller Ted Nugent has put in a good word for us trappers lately. Had a good segment about snaring on his “Spirit of the Wild” TV show (Outdoor Channel, Tues, 8pm EST) and recently wrote an article in a Waco, TX newspaper.

What do you say to a trapper? Say ‘Thank You’
Waco Tribune Herald - Waco,TX,USA
In our world of city-fied disconnect and intellectually bankrupt denial, we have seen what happens with trapping bans — bureaucrats scrambling insanely for …

Ted is a life member of the following organizations: The National Rifle Association (NRA), Michigan Bow Hunters, Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners of California, Director Law Enforcement Alliance of America, New York City Benevolent Policeman’s Association, National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited, Michigan United Conservation Clubs, Michigan Big Game Hunters Association, Handgun Hunters International, Michigan Sheriff’s Association, National Trappers Association, U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, Wisconsin Bowhunters Association, Mississippi Bowhunters, Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Spokesman, Outdoor Writers Association of America, Coalition of Michigan Hunters, National Field Archers Association (NFAA), Director Canadian Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA), Putting People First, South Dakota Archery Association, Maryland Bowhunters Society, Arizona Bowhunter Society, United Bowhunters of Connecticut, Massachusetts Bowhunting Association, United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania, Ohio Society of Traditional Archers (OSTA), South Carolina Bowhunters, Director: Michigan Bowhunting Conference and Vice President:American Shooting Sports Council.

His very impressive biography and more can be found on his website www.tednugent.com