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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Our local animal rights folks on here will be glad to hear this news..


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Locke vetoes rollback of animal trapping ban

By PAUL QUEARY
The Associated Press
May 20, 2003



OLYMPIA (AP) -- A drastic rollback of Washington state's voter-approved ban on most animal trapping was vetoed Tuesday by Gov. Gary Locke, who said opponents of the prohibition went too far in overturning the voters' wishes.
Locke said he could have supported an alternative proposal -- which died in the House -- to address increased complaints since the initiative's 2000 passage of animals killing livestock, chewing up young trees, tearing up lawns, gnawing holes in dikes and feasting on juvenile salmon at hatcheries.

"If there's a way that we can cure it without repealing it, then that's a preferred course," Locke said.

The bill, Senate Bill 5179, would have allowed the use of body-gripping taps to address animal problems, for scientific research and for population control. The fur of animals trapped for those reasons could be sold.

That would have been a virtual repeal of Initiative 713, which banned the use of such traps to capture any mammal for recreation or commerce in fur. The initiative's backers argued the traps were cruel and inhumane. Nearly 55 percent of voters agreed, passing the initiative in November 2000.

"What this boils down to is the will of the voters and their desire for the humane treatment of wild animals in this state," said Lisa Wathne, regional director for the Humane Society of the United States, the biggest backer of the initiative.

Opponents of the initiative said the alternative that Locke touted wouldn't have gone far enough to repair the initiative's damage.

"It was more of the same," said Ed Owens, the initiative's prime opponent and a lobbyist for trapping, hunting and fishing interests. Owens dismisses the initiative as wildlife management by politics instead of science.

The failed alternative would have exempted moles, gophers and mountain beaver -- three of the most destructive species -- from the trapping ban. That plan would also have allowed special trapping permits for parks, airports and other public lands, as well as for livestock owners trying to protect vulnerable animals during the calving and lambing seasons.

But it would have retained the ban on the sale of trapped fur.

The sale of fur is a key question, because allowing trappers to sell the pelts lowers landowners' costs for getting rid of the animals and generally increases the incentive to trap.

Overriding Locke's veto would take a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate. The Republican-controlled Senate passed it 35-13, more than a two-thirds margin, but the House vote was a narrower 52-46.


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rumor has it that they will be after windshieds and grills next.

Damn, when I read the topic, I thought it meant under something.

Sorry for the raised hopes!

I liked what Locke had done in the beginning of his time as our Gov, but the more time he spends in office, the less I like him.