AR-News: Article on Bill To Change Fish and Game Council

[Stu Chaifetz]

Please continue to write and call your legislators and ask them to support this bill!

Stu



 Game council may add animal advocates
Wednesday, June 2, 2004

By RICHARD COWEN
STAFF WRITER

Animal rights activists would occupy as many as five of the 13 seats on a newly constituted Fish and Game Council, under terms of a bill recently introduced in the state Legislature.

The bill, A-2852, would expand the state's Fish and Game Council from 11 to 13 members - and would require, for the first time, the governor to appoint five animal rights activists to the agency responsible for regulating and managing fishing and hunting in New Jersey.

The proposed changes are a direct result of the political fallout from last year's black bear hunt. The hunt was arranged after the state's growing bear population began to pose problems in Highlands neighborhoods. Animal rights activists complained that the Fish and Game Council was too stacked with hunters and farmers who were quick to pull the trigger rather than explore alternatives such as immuno-contraception.

"I think this would be a giant step forward," said Lynda Smith, director of the Bear Education and Resource Group of West Milford. "It took the bear hunt to bring to light the fact that the system of wildlife management in New Jersey really needs fixing."

The proposal, sponsored by Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone, D-Bayonne, would reduce the number of sportsmen appointed to the Fish and Game Council from six to two and the number of farmers from three to two. In their places, the governor would appoint five members recommended by the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, the Bear Education and Resource Group, or the Humane Society of the United States. It also would vastly expand the power of DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell by giving him a vote on the Fish and Game Council while putting the autonomous agency under his command.

The bill now heads for the Assembly Agriculture Committee. It was introduced just as the council was to discuss holding another bear hunt, in December.

Last year, in an effort to slow bear population growth, the state held its first bear hunt since 1970. Hunters killed 312 bears. Bitterly disappointed animal rights activists vowed to make the hunt a reelection issue for McGreevey in 2005 unless changes were made to New Jersey's wildlife management strategy.

Fish and Game will hold a public hearing Tuesday at the Trenton Museum to discuss the new game code, which includes another bear hunt. Sportsmen on the council are committed to the hunt and upset by the proposal for change.

"These people are animal rights extremists," said member George P. Howard. "They don't want any hunting at all."

"I don't see how we could get anything done," said W. Scott Ellis, the Council chairman.

Animal rights activists have long argued that wildlife management must include more than just hunting. Alternatives to controlling growing populations of deer and bear through immuno-contraception have been tried only in limited experiments. And hunting opponents believe the state should do a better job of teaching residents how to co-exist with wild animals by focusing on garbage laws.

"This is the 21st century, and its time for a change," said Stu Chaifetz, a member of the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance. Chaifetz conceded that animal rights activists were opposed to all hunting in theory, but said it was "unrealistic" to suggest that even a newly constituted Fish and Game Council would enact a ban on killing all animals for sport.

"We're looking to achieve some balance in the system," Chaifetz said.

A spokesman for McGreevey, Micah Rasmussen, said the governor likes the idea of adding animal rights activists to the Fish and Game Council. Campbell, the DEP commissioner, was not in Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

E-mail: cowen at northjersey.com
-- 


www.HonorAndNonViolence.com