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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=dlchobbes@gmail.com href="mailto:dlchobbes@gmail.com">David Crowley</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=wogbe@bvgmusic.com
href="mailto:wogbe@bvgmusic.com">Wogbe Ofori</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, February 17, 2006 8:41 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> A little note from The Humane Society of the
U.S.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class=title><SPAN>Cheney's Canned Kill, and Other Hunting Excesses of
the Bush Administration</SPAN></DIV></TD></TR>
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<TD vAlign=bottom colSpan=2><IMG height=10
src="http://www.hsus.org/web-files/hr9.gif" width=424></TD></TR>
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width=23></TD>
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width=401></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR><BR>
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<TD colSpan=2><IMG alt="Ring-Necked Pheasant "
src="http://www.hsus.org/web-files/Birds/281x144_Pheasant.jpg"
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<TD align=left><SPAN class=imageCopyright></SPAN><BR></TD>
<TD align=right><SPAN class=imagePhotocredit>USDA photo: Ron
Nichols</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
<DIV class=subcopy>
<P>By Wayne Pacelle</P>
<P>Vice President Dick Cheney went pheasant shooting in Pennsylvania in December
2003, but unlike most of his fellow hunters across America, he didn't have to
spend hours or even days tramping the fields and hedgerows in hopes of bagging a
brace of birds for the dinner table.</P>
<P><A href="http://www.hsus.org/wildlife/stop_canned_hunts/index.html"><IMG
style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; FLOAT: right; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px"
src="http://www.hsus.org/web-files/canned-hunts/CannedHuntWebBnr120x120.gif">
</A>Upon his arrival at the exclusive Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township,
gamekeepers released 500 pen-raised pheasants from nets for the benefit of him
and his party. In a blaze of gunfire, the group—which included legendary Dallas
Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach and U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), along
with major fundraisers for Republican candidates—killed at least 417 of the
birds. According to one gamekeeper who spoke to the <I>Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette</I>, Cheney was credited with shooting more than 70 of the
pen-reared fowl.</P>
<P>After lunch, the group shot flocks of mallard ducks, also reared in pens and
shot like so many live skeet. There's been no report on the number of mallards
the hunting party killed, but it's likely that hundreds fell.</P>
<P>Rolling Rock is an exclusive private club for the wealthy with a world-class
golf course and a closed membership list. It is also a "canned hunting"
operation—a place where fee-paying hunters blast away at released animals,
whether birds or mammals, who often have no reasonable chance to escape. Most
are "no kill, no pay" operations where patrons only shells out funds for the
animals they kill.</P>
<P>Bird-shooting operations offer pheasants, quail, partridges, and mallard
ducks, often dizzying the birds and planting them in front of hunters or tossing
them from towers toward waiting shotguns. There are, perhaps, more than 3,000
such operations in the United States, according to outdoor writer Ted
Williams.</P>
<P>For canned hunts involving mammals, hunters can shoot animals native to given
continents—everything from Addax to Zebra—within the confines of a fenced area,
assuring the animals have no opportunity to escape. <I>Time</I> magazine
estimates that 2,000 facilities offer native or exotic mammals for shooting
within fenced enclosures.</P>
<P>The HSUS worked hard to expose Cheney's shooting spree, and we were fortunate
in persuading <I>The New York Times</I>, <I>The Washington Post</I>, the
<I>Dallas Morning News</I>, and other media outlets to cover the events of that
day and our subsequent criticism.</P>
<P>Our criticism is simple to understand: Farm-raised pheasants are about as
wary as urban pigeons and shooting them is nothing more than live target
practice, especially when they are released from a hill in front of 10 gunners
hidden below in blinds—as Cheney and his party were. Such hunting makes a
mockery of basic principles of fair play and humane treatment, and the vice
president should not associate himself with such conduct.</P>
<P>The private excesses of Cheney are bad enough, and worthy of The HSUS's
rebuke. But it's the public policy excesses that are of even greater concern to
me. Cheney's hunting trip strikes me as emblematic of the Bush Administration's
callousness towards the earth's animals.</P>
<P>The administration's most outrageous proposal is its plan to allow trophy
hunters to shoot endangered species in other countries and import the trophies
and hides into the United States. The administration first floated the proposal
a few months ago, with formal proposals subsequently published in the Federal
Register, and President Bush is expected to make a final decision soon on the
plan, which originated with his U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.</P>
<P>For 30 years, the Endangered Species Act has provided critical protections
for species near extinction in the United States. The act also protects species
in foreign nations, by barring pet traders, circuses, trophy hunters, and others
from importing live or dead endangered species. While we can't prevent the
shooting or capture of endangered species overseas, we can prevent imports—thus
eliminating the incentive for American hunters and others to shoot or trap the
animals in the first place.</P>
<P>But with this plan the administration is seeking to punch gaping holes in the
prohibitions, under the assumption that generating revenue through the sale of
hunting licenses will aid on-the-ground conservation in foreign lands.</P>
<P>The plan is transparent on its face. It's not aimed to help species, but to
aid special interests who want to profit from the exploitation of wildlife. No
group is more centrally involved in this miserable plan than <A
href="http://www.hsus.org/ace/20054">Safari Club International</A>, the world's
leading trophy hunting organization and an entity with close ties to the Bush
Administration. </P>
<P>The 40,000 member organization of rich trophy collectors has doled out close
to $600,000 in campaign contributions among GOP candidates in the past six
years. President Bush appointed a former top lobbyist of the Safari Club to be
the deputy director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—again, the very agency
promoting the plan to allow the selling off of endangered species to private
interests.</P>
<P>The HSUS is not a pro-hunting organization. That said, we view certain types
of hunting as worse than others. It crosses any reasonable line to support the
shooting of some of the rarest and most endangered animals in the world. And it
is beyond the pale to advocate for or participate in the shooting of animals in
canned hunts—for birds or mammals.</P>
<P>President Bush met with leaders of 19 hunting organizations on December 12.
While we expect him to endorse certain forms of hunting, he should in no way
countenance the shooting of endangered species or the hunting of captive or
pen-reared animals. If that's where these hunting groups want to lead him, he
needs to resist their entreaties. He needs to stand up to these special interest
groups and draw a bright line between certain types of hunting conduct.</P>
<P>Americans don't support this nonsense, and the president shouldn't
either.</P></DIV><BR>-- <BR>DLC
<P>
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