Legislators on the House Resources and Conservation Committee introduced a bill Thursday to protect the identity of any hunter that kills a wolf in Idaho. The man who caused this bill to be brought before the Legislature thinks it is bad legislation.
The issue arose when Idaho opened up a wolf hunt after the animals were de-listed under the Endangered Species Act. Once the hunt was under way, anyone who managed to kill a wolf was required to report it to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game so it could keep an accurate tally for the quota measurement. Since kill reports were a matter of public record, they were also subject to the laws of the Freedom of Information Act which is designed to give greater access to government.
Following the hearing Thursday, IdahoReporter.com contacted Rick Hobson, the man who posted the names of the hunters on the Internet. He described the fill as “unfortunate” and not in keeping with freedom of speech and information.
Here is the full text of his response:
I think the proposed bill is unfortunate. Hunting takes place on state and federal lands which are supposedly managed for all of us, in perpetuity. In this case, what the bill does is remove the users of the public resource from public dialog.
A blanket denial of all access to these records would, in my opinion, fly in the face of the freedoms of speach and information established in this country.
Worse is the message being sent when this action is seen in the light of others the Idaho state government has recently taken. With budget cuts to both education and Idaho public television, there seems to be a “war on public information” being fomented in the legislature.
‘A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both,’ Pres. James Madison, August 4, 1822.
Hobson did not say if he planned to testify at the next hearing on the legislation. Click here to IdahoReporter.com’s original story on the bill.
[...] (Note: In an email Saturday, Hobson responsed to the proposed legislation. See what he had to say here.) [...]
I agree completely with Mr. Hobson.
“I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of the whole human being.”
Abraham Lincoln
Here’s an article presenting the other side of the story.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter175.htm
While Hobson claims he didn’t publish the names to incite harassment, other of his comments makes it very clear that he did. The harassment of those who filled their wolf tags, legally obtained, paid for, is uncalled for. That Hobson choose to do what he did is also uncalled for. If Hobson truly cared about the environment and endangered species, as he claims, he wold be concerned about the decimation of the ungulate herds in Idaho. That he isn’t makes it very clear that Hobson and his co-conspirators have an ulterior motive. Wolves are apex predators; they aren’t the nice little doggie down the street. They eat their prey alive, more often preying on females and young, they rip fetuses from the womb and leave the mother to die! They kill for fun; they kill for sport; they kill because the animal is there and available. They are not the Disneyesque animals that the pro-wolf lobby would like you to believe. One of the agendas of Hobson and his ilk, is to driver farmers and ranchers off their land. The cost of the wolf on private land is far above killing livestock, for which the owner is never fully reimbursed. Cattle under stress lose weight; cattle that have been run by wolves lose calves and produce poor calves. Cattle that are pushed off good grazing ground by wolves also lose weight. Baren cows cost money as does the loss of the calf. None of these costs are reimbursable. The only time the livestock owner is reimbursed, partially, is if it is proven the animal was killed by wolves which becomes difficult when the carcass isn’t found right away. While people in the city might not know this, those seeking to push ranchers off public lands, do.
[...] (Note: The man who initially posted hunters’ personal information online, Rick Hobson, thinks Boyle’s bill is an assault on free speech. Read his comments here.) [...]