Today is supposed to be the day that he signs or vetos...
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Gov. Locke may "feel trapped"
SSB 5179 has emotional backers on both sides, writes Fenton Roskelley.
Fenton Roskelley
The Spokesman-Review
May 20th, 2003


Governor Gary Locke hears from thousands of Washingtonians, as well as people throughout the country, when he's considering whether to veto, sign or let become law a controversial bill passed by the Legislature.
It's likely he's heard from the most people during the present session about the bill that would change trapping regulations.

Thousands of sportsmen, loggers, farmers, airport managers and others have urged him to sign SSB 5179, the bill that would permit some kind of trapping.

Even more thousands of animal rights activists have demanded that he veto the legislation. If he doesn't, activists say they'll submit another initiative to ban trapping.

Initiative 713, passed by voters in 2000, virtually destroyed trapping in Washington state.

While many landowners and others adversely affected by Initiative 713 have urged Gov. Locke to sign SSB 5179, the state's sportsmen also have been sending e-mails, faxes and letters to the governor asking him to sign the bill.

James Layman, executive director of the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, has e-mailed council members numerous times since the Legislature passed SSB 5179, urging them to contact the governor and ask him to sign the legislation.

"We will win or lose based on how hard you work to communicate support for SSB 5179," he said in one e-mail message. "You and your friends and families and the organizations you belong to have to convince the governor to sign SSB 5179. Our allies timber, farming, ranching, etc. cannot do it by themselves."

Layman said that Lisa Wathne, representative for the Humane Society of the United States, "is absolutely livid that we managed to pass SSB 5179.

"She's working hard to flood the governor with faxes, e-mails and telephone calls demanding a veto. Every animal rights network in the state is cranked up and working with her in support of her demands. The bottom line is that if we are going to win this battle, you need to get involved today and work harder than she has to counter her veto campaign."

With emotional voters from both sides of the issue urging him to do what they want, the governor has taken plenty of time to decide what to do about SSB 5179. He's been sitting on a political bomb. He undoubtedly knows that he'll alienate thousands of voters no matter what decision he makes.

Officials of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife know what kind of damage Initiative 713 has done to sane wildlife management. They support SSB 5179.

Despite their reluctance to become involved in controversial issues, department director Jeff P. Koenings and Fish and Wildlife Commission chairman Will Roel urged the governor to sign SSB 5179, saying in a three-page letter that "we strongly believe (the bill) provides our agency the tools to address the . . . issues of balance associated with current furbearer and nuisance wildlife laws that impact our citizens."

Referring to Initiative 713, they said "the initiative language as crafted has resulted in an ineffective and inefficient permit system that only allows for the capture of individual problem animals after damage has occurred and only on private property.

"While aggressively administering this permit system, the nature of the complaints, (wildlife officials) became keenly aware of the magnitude of damage and concerns over public safety.

" (SSB 5179) contains a new WDFW permit-controlled system for addressing animal problems and public safety issues, while allowing the agency to manage local wildlife furbearer populations causing safety and damage problems to both public and private property."

Officials pointed out that Initiative 713 says animals must be treated humanely and traps should capture wildlife in a humane way.

"The WDFW agrees fully with this philosophy," they said.

SSB 5179 specifically prohibits the use of any steel-jawed foothold trap that has teeth or serrated edges.

"We strongly support these elements of SSB 5179 and believe the use of body-gripping traps is an accepted and effective furbearer management tool. When used within the constraints of SSB 5179, trapping as a professional management tool can in fact balance and be compatible with the humane treatment of wildlife."

Despite the fact that WDFW officials have assured the governor and the public that steel-jawed traps won't be permitted, opponents of SSB 5179, which forbids the use of such traps, say in their Web site: "Keep steel-jawed leg-hold traps out of Washington's wilderness."

WDFW officials said in their letter to the governor that "the direction provided by SSB 5179 allows for proactive resolution of wildlife-human conflicts and changes the current practice from that of issuing a permit of last resort to a property owner to one that allows WDFW to preempt nuisance and damage activity by continuing to regulate trapping through a new comprehensive permitting system."

Win or lose in this battle with animal rights activists, the state's sportsmen, most of whom stayed on the sidelines when their interests and beliefs were attacked, gradually have become convinced they have to become activists themselves or watch the anti-hunting, anti-fishing groups persuade most of the state's voters to end hunting and fishing.

Animal rights activists are persistent. As the result of their many battles throughout the country, they've developed effective strategies to chip away at laws governing hunting and fishing. They have won most of their fights. They never give up.

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