America's Largest and Most Radical Hunting-Ban Group Endorses Barack Obama--It's Just One More Association With Radicals That He Can't Run From: While Barack Obama lies to America's gun owners and hunters about his longstanding public record in support of legislation stripping Americans of essential liberties, his so-called friends are thwarting his campaign of deception. The Humane Society Legislative Fund, the political arm of the radical Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), is the most recent to foil Obama's best laid plans after giving him the organization's unequivocal endorsement. This should be a resounding wake-up call to America's millions of hunters.
Wayne Pacelle, President of HSUS has made no secret of his organization's desire to ban all hunting. Hunters would be well advised to keep in mind the following quotes from Pacelle that expose the true agenda of HSUS:
"If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would." – as quoted by the Associated Press in Impassioned Agitator, December 30, 1991
"Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting. Our opponents say hunting is a tradition. We say traditions can change." – Bozeman Daily Chronicle, October 8, 1991
Pacelle knows that he has a proven friend in Obama after his support of Senator Ted Kennedy's legislation that would have banned virtually all rifle ammunition used by America's hunters. If successful, the legislation would have ended the vast majority of all hunting – a fact not lost on HSUS.
In Congress and state legislatures and city councils around the country, HSUS lobbies to defeat every measure that expands hunting opportunities for the country's sportsmen. It says it opposes only the most "barbaric and inhumane" hunting practices. What it doesn't say publicly is that HSUS believes that all sport hunting is "barbaric and inhumane."
There's never been a hunting ban or restriction that HSUS hasn't actively supported. It routinely lobbies to:
- Prohibit the use of traditional lead bullets and shot for all hunting;
- Prohibit urban and suburban archery deer hunting programs;
- Prohibit bear hunting in a number of states including New Jersey, Colorado and Alaska;
- Replace traditional hunting as a wildlife management tool, with expensive and unproven contraception programs;
- Retain Sunday hunting bans in states like Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia;
- Ban the hunting of doves, the most widely hunted game bird in America; and
- Ensure that emotion, not science, dictates wildlife management practices
In addition to its anti-hunting efforts in the public policy realm, HSUS uses its enormous financial resources to regularly file lawsuits to stop hunting and the scientific wildlife management practices that recognize hunting as an essential tool. A recent example of this came when HSUS filed lawsuits that successfully closed millions of acres of wildlife refuges to hunting. This is despite the fact that Congress has determined that hunting is one of the traditional activities that should specifically be encouraged in refuges.
HSUS is also the group most responsible for preventing the removal of the Rocky Mountain gray wolf from the endangered species list despite the finding by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that wolf populations have exceeded original delisting goals by more than 400%. Delisting would have allowed states to implement hunting to control the now healthy and sustainable wolf populations. The overpopulated and unmanaged wolves are taking an unacceptably high toll on game populations, such as elk and moose. This significantly reduces hunting opportunities and endangers the long-term viability of these species. HSUS will stop management through hunting at all costs. It's more evidence that the group could not care less about the consequences of its actions on wildlife, as long as Americans are prohibited from hunting.
In addition to all of this, Pacelle's endorsement of Obama is proof positive that the anti-hunting, anti-gun front group American Hunting and Shooting Association (AHSA) is no friend to the country's sportsmen. AHSA had already endorsed Obama. HSUS and AHSA are now working hand-in-hand to elect the most anti-freedom presidential ticket in the country's history.
Sportsmen must now ask themselves what will happen to America's proud hunting heritage with an Obama administration that is beholden to radical groups like HSUS. We know from his own words that Wayne Pacelle's goal is to end all hunting, so the answer should be self-evident.
