http://tinyurl.com/6ptudp

http://www.hunttheoutdoors.com/

Firearms and Ammunition Contribute $3 Billion to Wildlife Conservation; Industry Announces Important New Initiative
by Hunt The Outdoors on February 2nd, 2008 in Conservation and Restoration

LAS VEGAS — Executives from America’s leading firearms and ammunition manufacturers gathered this evening at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show to mark an important milestone in the firearms and ammunition industry’s longstanding support of wildlife conservation. Manufacturers have since 1991 contributed more than $3 billion dollars to fund wildlife conservation through the payment of a federal excise tax on the sale of their products. The excise tax is a primary source of wildlife conservation funding in the United States. Since the inception of the excise tax in 1937, more than $5 billion dollars has been collected.

In recognition of this milestone, a commemorative check for $3 billion dollars was presented to H. Dale Hall, the director of U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and Matt Hogan, the executive director of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), from key firearms industry leaders at the annual membership meeting of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) ? the industry’s trade association.

“Our industry is proud of its leading role in financially supporting wildlife conservation and protecting habitat,” said Doug Painter, NSSF president and chief executive officer. “We are especially proud that our industry stepped up to the plate for America’s wildlife and natural resources decades before ‘environmentalism’ became a popular movement.”

The federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition products (11 percent on long guns and ammunition and 10 percent on handguns), is collected by the U.S. Treasury, Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and given to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) where it is deposited into the Wildlife Restoration Trust Fund, commonly referred to as the Pittman-Robertson Trust Fund. These taxes are the major source of conservation funding in the United States.

“The federal excise taxes paid by manufacturers of firearms and ammunition through the Wildlife Restoration program provide state wildlife agencies this critical funding necessary to help maintain wildlife resources, educate hunters and fund sport shooting ranges nationwide,” said Hall. “For example, my home state of Kentucky used these funds to restore elk populations to sustainable levels. Now, for the first time in hundreds of years, sportsmen and women have the opportunity to hunt elk east of the Mississippi River.”

In just the past 12 months, the firearms and ammunition industry has contributed more than $280 million to conservation via the Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax (FAET). This amount of money demonstrates a 41 percent increase over the last five years. The complete amount collected through federal excise tax payments, a number which includes payments from the archery and fishing industries, tops $1 billion a year.

“For over 70 years, state fish and wildlife agencies have used the revenue from the Pittman-Robertson program to build the most successful wildlife conservation model the world has ever known,” said Hogan. “One needs only look at the return of species like the whitetail deer, wild turkey, pronghorn antelope and the wood duck, to name a few, to see that this money has been well spent for the benefit of all Americans.”

Industry Introduces Plan to Supplement NAWCA

Demonstrating its continued support for conservation, industry announced a plan to supplement congressional funding (currently $75 million dollars) of the North American Wetland Conservation Act — a grant program providing federal cost-share funding to support the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. “NSSF is proud to announce a new multi-pronged three-year initiative to support wetlands conservation,” commented Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.

As part of the NSSF proposal, the trade association has promised to use staff resources to work with its partners in the shooting, hunting and outdoor communities to better promote NAWCA at industry events. NSSF will also advocate for stronger congressional funding for NAWCA during the appropriations process and will contribute $150,000 annually for the next three fiscal years to a mutually agreed upon NAWCA project.

“We understand the value of wildlife conservation and preserving migratory bird habitat, and we are fully vested in ensuring that the hunters and sportsmen who use our products have game to hunt and places to go hunting so that they can enjoy this important national heritage and pass it onto the next generation,” concluded Painter.
To learn how Pittman-Robertson Funds are used in your state, please contact your state fish and wildlife agency.

For your one-stop resource on all hunting and shooting matters, please visit the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Web site, HuntandShoot.org.

Good stuff, Mira

This is what HSUS thinks of conservation and looking after our wildlife plus environment. Even a ten year old child should be able to read the subterfuge in how Pacelle/HSUS play games of pretension that they are interested in wild animal management when presenting false evidence before legislators in the hopes of destroying all conservation methodology.


http://www.maineguides.org/referendum/anti_hunter_quotes.shtml

"Who is the Humane Society of the United States?"

HSUS raises $65 million each year, and has total assets of over $100 million. This huge pot of money goes toward a continual barrage of political campaigns and lobbying to stop hunting and trapping – with almost zero being contributed toward caring for lost or abandoned pets (less than 1.8% given to local programs – and even then mostly for anti-hunting and anti-trapping political campaigns like Maine’s Bear referendum.

In addition, HSUS partners with many other radical animal rights groups to share the financing for their anti-hunting campaigns. Their partners include the Fund for Animals, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

As a charity, HSUS has often been criticized by watchdog groups for its wastefully high fundraising expenses, and for misrepresenting who and what they are. HSUS has also been criticized for the huge salaries of its very well paid campaign managers and organizers – the top managers receive over $200,000 in annual salary!

Even Merritt Clifton, publisher of "Animal People", a newsletter written by animal rightists for animal rightists, singled out HSUS for appearing to be something it is not. In December’s 11th annual report on fundraising, under the heading "How they fool the world", he writes:

"The most misleading appeals that Animal People sees on a regular basis are those which misrepresent the sender. Over time, such appeals can create an image for an organization which is sharply at odds with what it actually does."

"The Humane Society of the U.S., for instance, is not and never has been a collective voice for all, most, or any other humane societies. Neither does it shelter animals, adopt out animals, neuter animals, or share funding with local humane societies. In fact, HSUS is an advocacy organization representing just itself."

Many of HSUS’ leaders have been radical anti-hunting activists all their life. A large portion of the current HSUS leaders came from extreme groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Fund for Animals, Animal Liberation Front, and other organizations.

Cutting Through the Double-talk!

In a 1992 debate on WJNO Radio in West Palm Beach, Florida, Wayne Pacelle, currently HSUS Vice President for Campaigns, then representing the Fund for Animals, admitted his goal to ban ALL hunting. Here is a portion of his statements in that interview:

Interviewer: "Where would your organization support Black Bear hunting - anywhere in the United States?"

Pacelle: "Nowhere"

Interviewer: "Where does your organization support the hunting of deer - anywhere in the United States?"

Pacelle: "Nowhere"

Interviewer: "Where, in the United States, does your organization support any hunting of any species?"

Pacelle: "Nowhere"

Interviewer: "So the real agenda and goal of Fund For Animals is a total ban on all hunting everywhere?"

Pacelle: "Yes."

Interviewer: "So all this debate about whether or not the Black Bear is threatened or endangered and the actual number of Black Bear that we have in Florida is really irrelevant since the goal of your organization is to ban all hunting everywhere?"

Pacelle: "Yes"

About HSUS’ Plans and Strategy to Stop All Hunting - Here’s what Wayne Pacelle, HSUS Senior Vice President, had to say:

"We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United States… We will take it species by species until all hunting is stopped in California. Then we will take it state by state." – Wayne Pacelle, quoted in an interview published in the magazine Full Cry, October 1990.

About Wayne Pacelle – He is a radical animal rights fanatic, who follows the "Vegan" religion – eat vegetarian, wear no animal products, and hold animals above all humans. One of his ultimate goals is to force all mankind to eat vegetarian. However, he ignores the fact that billions of birds, mammals, bison, rodents, insects and other animals are displaced, even made nearly extinct, as land is used up to grow the favorite vegetarian crops like soy beans and wheat instead leaving the land as healthy, natural wildlife habitat.

"For the sake of animals, there’s nothing more powerful than changing your diet." - 1998 interview with Pacelle by Erik Marcus published on http://www.vegan.com.

In college (Yale), he formed an anti group, the Student Animal Rights Coalition, where "we protested deer hunting."

Pacelle started another anti group in Connecticut, the Animal Rights Alliance. He even used animal rights issues when he ran for city council as a Green Party candidate.

As National Director of the Fund For Animals, he claims that he "did a lot of work on wildlife issues, particularly against sport hunting." His specialty there seemed to be hunter harassment:

"We did a lot of field protests against hunting where we would walk with hunters and talk with them about hunting. And in the process they were seldom able to make a kill (the distraction and six people tromping with a hunter scared away the animals). We also challenged the constitutionality of state hunter harassment laws." – 1998 interview with Pacelle by Erik Marcus published on http://www.vegan.com.

Pacelle’s preferred state referendum tactics include:

"Tabling, hosting house parties, and distributing literature near polling sites are all essential ingredients of a successful statewide initiative." - 1998 interview with Pacelle by Erik Marcus published on http://www.vegan.com.

Ultimately, he views humans as the big problem, and Nazi-like population control as the means to place animals above people:

"Human population growth is ultimately one of the most significant that we as a movement have to grapple with." - 1998 interview with Pacelle by Erik Marcus published on http://www.vegan.com.

Pacelle doesn’t even want you to have pets, and not only wants to ban all pet breeding, he wants pets to be extinct:

"We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding." – Animal People News, May 1, 1993.



What is wrong with State Legislators and Court Dockets when they can not understand the goals of HSUS are not about helping animals but about restricting humans???