Post by daappleknocker on Feb 2, 2017 13:14:33 GMT -5
MUCC CRYING WOLF? WHY?
This post is about how some hunting and wildlife conservation groups control our management and regulations by fear mongering. Fear is a convenient conduit for the control of people. When people fear something enough they are vulnerably pliable and their thoughts and actions can be easily manipulated. The organization Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC), has done a lot to promote this fear in their membership and other hunters.
Whenever an issue that involves the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) or the group Keep Michigan Wolves Protected (KMWP) comes forward, MUCC goes on the rampage. They see these groups as “boogie men” and have convinced their members and other apathetic hunters of the same. They use these issues as membership enhancers and donation drives. There are three recent issues that support this claim and drive my point home. They are the 2006 “dove hunting issue”, the 2014 “wolf hunting issue” and the current “surgical sterilization issue” in Ann Arbor.
In 2006, a small but influential group of hunters decided it was time that Michigan joined the 21st century and started shooting doves. I say shoot, because they are so plentiful in Michigan that you do not have to hunt them. In a poorly designed campaign, focused mostly on hunters, their main argument was that HSUS was against the proposal and therefore any self-respecting hunter had to join them to defeat the HSUS. They tried to create a fear amongst hunters that if we let HSUS win this battle, it was the beginning of the end for ALL hunting in Michigan. It failed miserably as dove hunting was defeated by nearly seventy percent of voters.
Next came the “wolf hunting” issue of 2014. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that wolf hunting is necessary in Michigan to control populations and to create a respect or fear in wolves for man. But again, the supporters of wolf hunting formed the group, Citizens for Professional Wildlife Management, (CFPWM). This group was a compilation of “sportsmen’s” groups organized by MUCC. Their purpose was to pass the, “Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act” through a petition drive to put it on the ballot in 2014.
This petition contained what are known as “sweeteners”, or provisions that have nothing to do with the original intent or purpose of the action. These “sweeteners included removing the $1.00 license fee for active duty military that was included in HB 4668 on September 17, 2013 at 3:40 PM by Governor Snyder, also known as the License Fee Increase Package. Another “sweetener” was an appropriation of $1,000,000.00 to fight invasive species, specifically Asian carp. They were included as measures to muddy the proposal or entice signers of the petition that may otherwise not agree with their agenda. I attended four petition signing sites, and these “sweeteners” were used as selling points often, and the organizers knew it.
While they achieved, the necessary signatures required to put this initiative on the ballot, they decided to manipulate the process and take this proposal, or “citizen initiative”, directly to the legislature, thus avoiding the “voice of the people”. I have never vigorously or actively opposed CPWM or their petition for the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, I just refuse to support a political agenda formed with hate as its foundation.
The route that they chose to achieve their agenda has backfired on them once already and I believe that if wolves are ever taken off the Federal endangered species list again, it will be defeated in the courts. Why? Because with the manipulation of the system and NOT allowing it to go to the ballot, there were two ballot issues that passed by the voters, “people”, that prohibit the hunting of wolves in Michigan. Because of their fear and hatred of HSUS, PETA and KMWP, they screwed up big time.
And now we have the third issue where MUCC is trying to increase their membership and improve their finances by making HSUS through the City of Ann Arbor the “boogie man” again. This issue of surgical sterilization is nothing more than a feeble attempt to distract hunters from real issues facing deer hunting in Michigan. If you believe their hyperbole, if we let this sterilization take place, it will become so common that deer in Michigan will become extinct. This sterilization process is so cost prohibitive, that fear is totally unwarranted.
MUCC should be more concerned about mandatory antler point restrictions, MAR’s, Bovine Tuberculosis Btb, and Chronic Wasting Disease CWD, rearing its ugly head in Michigan again. I have an objection to MAR’s as it promotes one hunter’s method of hunting at the expense of another’s, through regulation changes. But, the real danger of MAR’s has become the advancement of diseases where MAR’s are practiced. I was at the first meeting in Northeast Michigan when the first discussions were held about implementing MAR’s in the form of Hunters Choice, HC. There we’re biologist at the meeting that warned about the increase of Btb if HC were implemented, but the DNR representatives Dr. Russ Mason and Brent Rudolph both claimed that this was an experiment. The experiment failed as Btb rates are on the increase and the disease is spreading.
We need to unite hunters again. We cannot do this with fear, hatred, manipulation and intimidation. I agree that we need to keep a watchful eye on organizations like HSUS, PETA and KMWP. But, we cannot get caught up in the hype of fear and hatred towards these groups. I believe that MUCC has cried wolf so many times that they are losing their credibility, and that my friends is a shame.
A Concerned Wildlife Resource Advocate.
Curtis Stone
Michigan S.M.A.R.T. Hunters
2-2-17
