Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game SCI helps trappers

Safari Club International Will Defend Trapping in Maine

February 26, 2007

Safari Club International will be able to help defend against a lawsuit that challenges Maine�s trapping program and threatens hunting everywhere. The lawsuit, recently filed in Federal District Court in Maine, challenges trapping in Canada lynx, bald eagle, and grey wolf range. The court has just approved SCI�s request to participate as �amici curiae� (friend of the court). This will enable SCI to file legal briefs and present oral arguments. SCI will seek to convince the court that the state�s trapping program does not illegally �take� (i.e., hurt or kill) the three federally protected species, for example in traps or snares set for other animals. The Plaintiffs have brought this suit in the hopes of persuading the court to end or alter the trapping program in areas where the lynx or bald eagle exist (the grey wolf is not known to exist in Maine).

�We are happy to be involved in this case not only to defend the activities of sportsmen and women in Maine, but to guard against an adverse legal precedent that could be used to attack hunting and other sporting activities in other states,� explained Ralph Cunningham, President of Safari Club International. A similar case is already pending in Minnesota and SCI is involved in that case as well.

�Amici curiae status gives us an opportunity to make pointed legal and factual arguments on behalf of the 53,000 members of SCI,� said Kevin Anderson, Vice President of SCI and Chairman of the Legal Task Force.

SCI is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and in promoting wildlife conservation worldwide. SCI�s 179 Chapters represent all 50 United States as well as 13 other countries. SCI�s proactive leadership in a host of cooperative wildlife conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian programs, with the SCI Foundation and other conservation groups, research institutions and government agencies, empowers sportsmen to be contributing community members and participants in sound wildlife management and conservation. Visit www.safariclub.org or call 520-620-1220 for more information.

# # #

Contacts:
Doug Burdin, Litigation Counsel
SCI-DC
dburdinsci-dc.org
202-543-8733

It's a friggin shame there are only 53,000 members in SCI. In the morning, I will call the local SCI Chapter chair, and make that 53,001. FWIW, Dutch.