Attention Arkansas Delta Members - Your Hunting is Being Threatened! (September 25, 2002)

A group of animal rights activists based in Little Rock, Arkansas known as Citizens for a Humane Arkansas have engineered a proposed Animal Cruelty Act that jeopardizes waterfowlers, and anyone else that uses animals in the State.

Andy Miller, associate director of governmental affairs for the Farm Bureau in Little Rock, is very concerned about the Act, called Initiated Act 1,”the proposed bill is potentially extremely harmful to animal agriculture, and hunting and fishing, two of the largest industries in Arkansas.”

Arkansans will vote on the proposed bill on Nov.5 and from Delta’s perspective, the hope is that citizens will vote no. Rob Olson, Delta’s Director of U.S. Operations says, “Delta Waterfowl, hunters and farmers support animal welfare and the need to prevent abuse and neglect of animals, but this ballot initiative is not about stopping animal abuse – existing laws already address that problem – long-term, it’s about stopping animal USE.”

The national animal rights groups behind the Animal Cruelty Bill are the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), based in Washington, D.C.; PETA, based in Norfolk, Virginia; The Fund For Animal and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), based in New York.

Wayne Pacelle, Senior Vice-President of the HSUS makes no bones about the ultimate agenda of their group and the ballot initiatives they support (HSUS contributed $25,000 to Citizens for a Humane Arkansas),” only 7% of Americans are hunters. That means there are more of us than there are of them. It is simply a matter of democracy. The majority rules in a democracy. We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United State.” (Full Cry, October 1990)

If waterfowling is to survive long-term, hunters need to prove HSUS wrong and show up at the ballot box and speak with their vote. Clearly, all groups interested in securing the future of animal use will need to join forces to oppose animal rights zealots such as HSUS and PETA.

Peter Trexler, Senior Vice-President of Delta Waterfowl agrees,” if we are to hang on to our collective rural heritage, be it sitting in a duck blind with our families, or tending to our livestock, folks like the Farm Bureau and Delta Waterfowl will need to stick together, that’s why we signed on to the growing coalition opposing this Bill.”

Please inform your friends and colleagues of the vote on Nov.5 for this impending ballot initiative – Initiated Act 1 – the Arkansas Animal Cruelty Act and vote NO. For more information contact, Rodney Baker or Andy Miller, Arkansans For Responsible Animal Laws, 10720 Kanis Rd., Little Rock.