by Cody McLaughlin - Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Anti-hunters are everywhere, even in states with the strong pro-sporting traditions. What’s even scarier, though, is that they now operate as well-funded and well-organized political machines. Take Maine, where it was reported this week that three new petitions filed with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife threaten to ban the hunting and trapping of bears and coyotes.
History of Anti-Hunting Efforts in Maine
According to the Lewiston Sun Journal, there is “probably no other anti-hunting activist in Maine who is more determined, persistent and passionate than John Glowa from China.” Working since the 90s to “recover” wolves in Maine, he is the founder of the Maine Wolf Coalition and, in addition to his wolf efforts, opposes coyote hunting and trapping.
Glowa, like all other animal rights extremists, subscribes to a preservationist mindset that aims to completely shut humans out of the natural world. The problem: This is a misleading and dishonest talking point. Humans, whether we like it or not, are a part of the ecosystem merely due to existing. Therefore, we must manage all wildlife species accordingly or risk imbalances that have plagued the prey of predator populations for years. For just two examples, consider endangered beach-nesting shore birds and other ground-nesting birds such as bobwhite quail.
One presumes Mr. Glowa lives in a house with trappings of modern life, which sits on land that could be inhabited otherwise by a host of other critters, and who eats food that is then grown on land meeting the same criteria. Yes, anti-hunters, even vegan food still requires land—an animal’s most precious resource—to grow and make it to your dinner table.
The Petitions in Question
Among the petitions is one to ban bear hunting over bait, which is the legal, regulated hunting method that accounts for 80 percent of bears taken statewide. If it goes forward, bear populations will continue to expand, threatening deer and other prey species while posing a risk for increased human-bear encounters. Readers of our NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum are already witnessing what is happening in states such as New Jersey where human-bear conflicts continue to rise.
Mr. Glowa is also seeking to designate Maine coyotes as “eastern coywolves” which would provide them with added protections, ultimately putting Endangered Species Act protections in place for these animals. For more on the issues with predators such as coywolves, wolves and coyotes, read the NRA HLF article “Just the Facts on Wolves and Coyotes.”
Clearly, hunters are facing uphill battles in many states to save our mainstream, all-American hunting traditions and the outdoor lifestyle we hold dear. It is up to every hunter across America hunter to stay vigilant by remaining aware of such issues and taking action to support efforts to recruit, retain and reactivate hunters—known as the R3 movement—to fight back against efforts to undermine hunters and hunting on the basis of half-truths and outright lies by anti-hunting extremists.