North Dakota Fair Chase “Official” Meets With HSUS Regional Director

It would appear to me that the North Dakota Hunters For Fair Chase has some serious explaining to do and may also be in line to offer up an apology or two for not being very honest and transparent……but they won’t. It’s not part of their mission. Their goal is to tread on American’s rights while attempting to force their ideals down the throats of their neighbors in what now clearly indicates the desire to use whatever means available to them. In this case, accepting, if not asking, for the help of the Humane Society of the United States.

For those who may not know, the HSUS offers this statement on their website as policy regarding hunting.

As a matter of principle, The HSUS opposes the hunting of any living creature for fun, trophy, or sport because of the animal trauma, suffering, and death that result. A humane society should not condone the killing of any sentient creature in the name of sport. As a practical matter, The HSUS actively seeks to eliminate the most inhumane and unfair sport-hunting practices, such as the use of body-gripping traps, baiting, use of dogs, pigeon shoots, stocking of animals for shooting, and fee-hunting on enclosed properties.

The North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase, with their self-righteous attitudes, claim to be concerned about passing on their hunting heritage to their kids.

….a group of men and women dedicated to preserving Fair Chase as an intricate part of our state and national hunting heritage, a heritage that we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren.

I have mentioned before that NDHFF uses quotes from Aldo Leopold to support their Marxist ideals but evidently they don’t pay much attention to all the words in the statement they posted at the very top of their website.

“Voluntary adherence to an ethical code elevates the self-respect of the sportsman, but it should not be forgotten that voluntary disregard of the code degenerates and depraves him.” (emboldening is added)

Where in this statement does it say that if we don’t like the ethics of another hunter we should make laws in prohibition? Isn’t the whole value of the “ethical code” wrapped up in “voluntary adherence? And what makes it “wrong” or “unethical” is when that same person understands yet willing violates his own ethical code.

And where is the “ethical code” in meeting with and accepting support from the Humane Society of the United States, an organization that clearly states its goal is to end all forms of hunting, in their quest to legislate fair chase rules? Is there no ethical value in being honest anymore?

It certainly appears that North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase has some explaining to do. Repeatedly, representatives of the organization have either denied any involvement with HSUS or claimed they have no control over who supports or endorses the citizen’s initiative to ban hunting on game ranches.

We know that previously members of HSUS were helping to raise money and recruit names to go on the petition necessary to get the initiative on the November ballot.

We also know that Roger Kaseman, director of NDHFF, has more than one time made the following statements about HSUS in one form or another.

We have not and do not intend to seek the endorsement of any anti-hunting group.

……..we are not in bed with HSUS, nor will we be.

I am sure anti-hunting organizations will offer financial support for the campaign when we qualify the intuitive for the ballot. The committee is unanimous; we will turn down that support.

What HSUS places on their web site is beyond my control.

Who HSUS or any other organization endorses is beyond my control and beyond the control of any member of the Fair Chase Committee.

Just to take a closer examination of Kaseman’s statements, we can see a couple of things that are now turning out to be blatantly false statements.

Kaseman says NDHFF does not “intend” to seek endorsements and that he has no control over what HSUS or others place on their website. Perhaps true but never have I read anywhere that NDHFF has spoken out that it does not in anyway support ANY effort of the nation’s most radical anti-hunting group. NDHFF claims, as Kaseman iterates in his statements, that “I am not, nor is the Fair Chase Hunters organization an anti-hunting group.”

Further scrutiny of Kaseman’s statement reveals that back in February he seemed to have a crystal ball that told him that he was sure anti-hunting groups would offer financial support to their cause. Did he already know?

What’s interesting is that Kaseman states that the NDHFF committee had unanimously voted to turn down that support. Oh really? Somebody jumped ship I guess.

Kaseman also went so far in an editorial in the Bismark Tribune of accusing those opposed to his initiative of using deceptive practices because radio ads stated that HSUS was supporting the North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase.

One of the organizations fighting against the efforts of the Fair Chase Initiative is a group called Citizens to Preserve North Dakota Property Rights. They have issued a press release to announce that an “official” of North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase, met with the Director of the Northern Rockies Regional Office of the Humane Society of the United States, Dave Pauli.

Pauli evidently writes a blog and in a post that was published on June 30, 2008, he said he traveled to Dickinson and Bismark, North Dakota where he met with an official of NDHFF.

After Baker I kept going east to Dickinson and Bismarck ND where i met with an official of the Fair Chase hunting movement who are trying to pass a ballot initiative to ban “canned hunting” practices in North Dakota.

Pauli admits to things that officials in other states trying also to ban ranch hunting have denied as vehemently as Kaseman has.

We helped pass a ban on this egregious practice in Montana in 2005 and are supporting similar goals in Idaho and Colorado.

And Pauli admits that the purpose of his trip to North Dakota was to support the Fair Chase Initiative.

The signatures have to be in by the end of July so I stopped at shelters and activists homes along the way to encourage them to support the ballot initiative.

It certainly doesn’t sound like Pauli’s meeting with this “official” of the NDHFF was to hear that the Fair Chasers didn’t want their support.

Once this information is readily available, what will we hear from the North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase? More excuses? More lies? Helplessness?

I have no problem with any organization exercising their constitutional rights to petition the citizens and seek changes to laws. What I do have a problem with is when anyone has to use deceptive practices to achieve their goals. Those I will challenge.

It has now become quite clear that the North Dakota Hunters For Fair Chase is not honest. They have deceived the public and lied in saying that the committee would refuse any assistance from anti-hunting groups. They have accepted that help from this country’s most radical anti-hunting group that will not stop until they have succeeded in putting a ban on all hunting. This tells me that the NDHFF is an anti-hunting group hiding behind ethics and fair chase. Isn’t it ironic that a group emoting its holier-than-thou attitudes haven’t the scruples to be honest and forthcoming in their efforts to effect radical change in North Dakota?

North Dakota voters, should the Fair Chasers get enough signatures, now have to take a closer look at what they have been told by this group. What can they believe? Can they be trusted?

Shawn Schafer of Citizens to Preserve North Dakota Property Rights says it quite well in referencing a partnership of HSUS and NDHFF.

“Unfortunately, their partnership with HSUS has the Fair Chase group leading North Dakota down the path toward criminalizing hunting,” says Shawn Schafer with Citizens to Preserve North Dakota Property Rights. “Whether you choose to hunt on a preserve or not, hunters should have a choice in the matter and property owners should have the right to offer this option.”
“The Fair Chase initiative is clearly endangering the hunting tradition in North Dakota through this union,” Schafer says.

I have to agree. The Fair Chase Initiative is being sold as a means to save and protect hunting heritage. Nothing could be further from the truth.

*Update*
This morning, David Pauli, regional director of the Humane Society of the United States, has a letter to the editor in the Bismark Tribune. Aside from the usual lies HSUS is famous for regarding preserve hunting, Pauli, without naming names, essentially publicly endorses the North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase. He also glorifies the unification of hunters and anti-hunting groups to fight for the cause.

Time and time again, hunters, humane groups, environmentalists and just plain sound-thinking people have joined forces for the common good.

Sound-thinking people? Doubtful!

Tom Remington