General Discussion

Cattledog

(5,914 posts) Thu Feb 16, 2017, 04:37 PM Feb 2017

The NRA gets Congress to legalize the killing of bear cubs in wildlife refuges.

https://thinkprogress.org/congress-legalized-killing-bear-cubs-in-refuges-9ca5d3ae3929#.8r3at2g6i

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to legalize the killing of black bear cubs and their mothers at their dens in Alaska’s national wildlife refuges.
The controversial measure, backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), overturns a ‘Fair Chase’ rule, promulgated by the Obama administration, that also limited baiting, trapping, and the use of airplanes to track and shoot bears and wolves on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands in Alaska.
The vote was met with an outpouring of criticism from wildlife and conservation groups.
“Alaska’s extreme predator control policies lack scientific support, contravene conservation mandates on national wildlife refuges and defy traditional wildlife management principles,” said Jenny Keatinge, federal lands policy analyst with Defenders of Wildlife. “H.J. Res. 69 would cede federal management of iconic wildlife to the state’s misguided program on over 76 million acres of national wildlife refuges that belong to all Americans.”
Safari Club International, a group that has been criticized by both sportsmen and animals rights groups for advocating “canned” or captive hunting and elite trophy hunting, joined the NRA in pushing Congress to overturn the Fair Chase rule. In a letter to House members, the groups claimed the rule preempts the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s authority on national wildlife refuges.