Word: hunter
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...Minnesota attorney who e-mailed Millage after seeing a photo of him kneeling with his rifle over the wolf. But by the time hunting season ended on March 31, Millage's kill had led to extended legal protection not for the gray wolf but for another species: the Idahoan hunter...
Laws prohibiting "hunter harassment" have been passed in all 50 states, having proliferated at the behest of sportsmen organizations from 1982 to 1995. (In 1994 a similar restriction was added to the federal criminal code.) Many of these laws ban the use of physical conduct to impede a lawful hunt, such as banging pots and pans to scare off prey or taking a blowtorch to a hunter's crossbow. But other provisions have sparked outrage over First Amendment rights and have subsequently been struck down by judges for hindering hunting opponents' freedom of speech. (See the top 10 animal stories...
Idaho is one of several states dealing with hunter harassment, an issue that manifests itself in unique forms across the U.S. "Harassment is a problem," says Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association (NRA). "And what we're trying to do is make sure it isn't a problem. We're always trying to preserve the safety of hunters." The bill that recently passed both houses in Idaho - and was then signed by Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter on April 8 - extends hunter protections in two ways: by taking state-issued hunting permits, licenses and tags out of the public...
...past few years. Supporters of such a public-records exemption say there's no reason the general public needs access to information about citizens who are simply exercising legal rights. "There are no downsides," says Idaho state representative Judy Boyle, a Republican who proposed the measure. If a hunter seems to be doing something wrong, she says, let the police investigate: "We're not vigilante people," she says. Millage, who, as a way to combat his harassment, posted on a website the vitriolic missives he received, takes the same line: "There's no reason for all the names...
...Wisconsin, where reports of hunter harassment more than tripled during last year's deer season, territorial landowners have clashed repeatedly with hunters, and hunters have clashed among themselves. Such reports are especially alarming in a state where there have been two fatal hunter shootings, leaving seven dead, within the past decade, says chief conservation warden Randy Stark. The increased number of reports is still minuscule in Wisconsin - there were only 15 harassment cases among 600,000 hunters - but each is treated as a potential tragedy. "Although there's few of them, it only takes one for there...