Cynthia
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 4502 |
interview between USSA and Santorum
U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance
801 Kingsmill Parkway, Columbus, OH 43229
Ph. 614/888-4868 • Fax 614/888-0326
Website: www.ussportsmen.org • E-mail: info@ussportsmen.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mike
Faw (614) 888-4868 x 214
March 7, 2012
Sharon Hayden (614) 888-4868 x 226
Santorum Provides Views on Sportsmen’s Issues
(Columbus, OH) –On the day before the pivotal “Super Tuesday” primaries,
former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum sat down for an interview with
the staff leadership of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance to discuss issues
important to hunters, trappers and anglers.
The USSA staff present for the interview with Santorum were: Bud Pidgeon
(President and CEO); Rob Sexton (Senior Vice President); Doug Jeanneret
(Vice President, Marketing); and Evan Heusinkveld (Director, State
Services).
Here is the interview by issue topic:
Topic One: Hunting Recruitment and Hunting Access
Jeanneret: One of the issues facing sportsmen these days are dwindling
numbers of sportsmen. It’s a really big issue. The conservation
community, every national group… if you talked to any of them it’s a
concern of theirs. One of the things we would like to ask you, the
Department of Interior oversees U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which
oversees federal game laws. In your opinion, should they be helping us
create hunters, fishermen, trappers and promoting that ethic out there?
Santorum: I hear you but I am looking at where we are from the
standpoint from the deficit. I mean a lot of people ask me, where are
you for federal dollars for this or that? We are borrowing 42 cents of
every dollar right now and for me to commit any new dollars to do
anything would be a tough thing. If you are talking about within the
literature, for example that comes out, and we do things to talk about
hunting and fishing opportunities… if it’s in the context of what the
agency generally does and making sure that people are aware of
opportunities and things like that to sort of reinforce the importance
or nature of the sports. I have no problem with that. It’s different if
you’re saying we need to spend new dollars to do this.
Jeanneret: We’re not.
Sexton: We’re not. The pot of money we are talking about would be
excise tax dollars that come from ammunition sales, firearm sales,
fishing tackle sales. That money typically gets spent back on
conservation issues and sportsmen issues anyways. We are looking for
some prioritization of that money to programs that will get people into
the field and get them out and open up new land for them to hunt on and
things like that.
Santorum: I have no problem. I mean if you are asking me if I am going
to be friendly to opening up federal lands for more sportsmen activity
the answer is absolutely yes. If you are talking about if we are going
to take federal lands in the extent we can and turn them over to private
sector or turn them over to the state the answer is yes. I think this is
an opportunity for us. We have way too much federal land and way too
many restrictions on the federal lands that we have. I will be working
with a whole variety of different conservation groups, not environmental
groups, conservation groups as well as sportsmen groups to see what
avenues we can pursue to make that a much more welcoming environment for
sportsmen and for recreation.
Sexton: For years our community put our money towards reestablishing
species, whether it be deer or turkey or pheasant or what have you.
Returning to the idea of hunters, one of the biggest factors is the
urbanization of America. Guys give up hunting because they have to
drive 2½ hours to get to a place to hunt. I am just bringing this
around full circle so you know where we are coming from. We have used
our money… the firearm tax money and the fishing tackle money. That
money is supposed to be put back into the resource so that you get back
more hunters and anglers. Of course they (hunters) have a huge economic
impact as you know from your own home state. What we are looking for
now… we want to see investment in programs so that a guy doesn’t have to
drive 2 hours outside of Pittsburgh to get to hunt.
Santorum: I am okay with that as long as…you are going to find if you
look at my record one of the programs I am not a fan of is CRP. I know a
lot of CRP land is used for habitat but we shouldn’t be paying farmers
not to farm. I mean if you want to use that money to pay farmers to keep
habitat for pheasant, turkey, whatever…great, but I don’t think we
should be using money that encourages farmers not to farm their land for
environmental purposes. It’s not (CRP) as you know, it’s not intended
for wildlife habitat. It was intended for runoff and all sorts of other
things to preserve the ecology. I understand a lot of hunters and
sportsmen actually feel very passionate about the CRP program. I don’t.
Just being very up front with you. If you want to use the knowledge
for that, that’s one thing but we shouldn’t use __ag (agriculture)
dollars for that.
Topic Two: HR 4089, The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012
Heusinkveld: We have a piece of legislation we have been working on in
D.C. It’s called the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012. It’s a package
of four different pieces of legislation. It would close legal loopholes
that anti-hunters have used to shut down access to sportsmen to federal
lands. It has a provision, “open until closed,” which mandates that
these federal lands are open (to hunting, shooting, and fishing) until
closed by the agency because they’ve got specific reason or cause or
evidence that it needs to be done. The way the current law works, they
(federal land management agencies) have to open every single piece of
land. That opens up the opportunity to be sued by anti-hunters and
animal rights groups.
Santorum: I’m for it. (referring to supporting HR 4089)
Heusinkveld: Great.
Santorum: Government should make things available unless there is a
reason it shouldn’t be.
Topic Three: Dog Breeding and the Humane Society of the United States
Sexton: I think you are probably aware of a lot of the media coverage
over issues of substandard dog breeding operations. There has been a 50
state campaign to address the issue but the issue has gotten out of
control. The laws that are being written heavily impact folks who
aren’t large breeders, but operate sporting dog kennels, hobby breeders
instead of going after…
Santorum: …that’s actually why we thought about doing this at the
federal level so we could get all the folks and interested parties in
doing it. I mean you actually probably know I supported some of this
because of it was in conjunction with a problem we were having with the
importation of dogs and cats, but mostly dogs from China where there are
huge, huge problems with dogs, huge amount of dogs dying in
transportation and other types of problems and so that was clearly a
federal government issue because it has to do with trade so this was
sort of piggy backed on that bill. But it has been a chronic problem
for us in Pennsylvania too in the Amish areas. It became sort of a
wildfire issue for me and as far as I know they didn’t have this (state)
effort, which I understand they do now, to try and take care of this in
the 50 states. I know each state is dealing with it differently. But
if you look at that law we put together we were very, very conscious of
hobby breeders. We were very conscious of making sure we were talking
about large commercial operations, not somebody that was breeding a few
bitches you know every year or two.
Sexton: I think one of the concerns about the issue nationally is that
the chief proponent of the overall issue was the Humane Society of the
United States, who the hunting community regards as the top anti-hunting
group. The bills have been written in wide funnel methodology that
would… well in Pennsylvania the law they proposed would have put every
sporting dog kennel out of existence. We couldn’t find even one in
compliance with their proposal.
Santorum: I am not surprised by that. We dealt with both the AKC and
the HSUS. There were a lot of issues that ultimately would go back and
forth that we are not able to resolve and as a result probably just set
them aside. You know for me this was trying to do something that was
reasonable. I do believe in people’s ability to raise their own animals,
but I also believe when animals go into the home as most of these
animals do, you have to have consumer protection standards so you’re not
having defective animals and animals that have temper problems and other
types of problems coming into people’s homes. How many folks do you
know that their dog is like their child? You just can’t introduce an
animal into the home without having some sort of standards that are set
in place.
Sexton: Are you aware of the issues between the Humane Society of the
United States and the Sportsmen’s Community?
Santorum: Sure. I am very aware of it. I understand there are issues
between them (HSUS) and production agriculture which is even worse than
it is with the Humane Society and the sportsmen. I think you’ll find I
am very reasonable guy. I do believe we should be good stewards. We
have dominion over animals. We have dominion over the earth and we have
to be responsible for the treatment of them. I know most sportsmen are
but unfortunately there are some breeders who aren’t. As a result this
is the same thing as everything else when you have people that do not
live up to those conditions. Everyone else has to deal with regulations
as a result of that. You can’t just turn a blind eye to it. You can’t
just say well it’s too bad there are some bad people out there but too
bad. I just don’t think that’s what laws are for. People keep a
minimum standard for the care of and treatment of animals.
Sexton: You know you can draw a parallel when you think about it like
firearms regulations and laws. We are after law breakers, not the law
abiding and the same would be true on this issue.
Santorum: The concern is that we heard from some sportsmen groups and
breeders that government shouldn’t be involved with us at all. Well, I
don’t buy that. I mean you know if you want to police yourself…but
you’re not because I can point to lots of kennels where you’re not. So
if you’re not, someone is going to have to police it, otherwise you can
run the videos and show the American public and you’re going to lose
because no one is going to want to see animals treated like this and
hear the stories that are going on. I mean, Americans loves our pets so
we have to be reasonable. What I found is that vast majority of
breeders are very reasonable. Some who don’t believe in any government
regulation of anything and they have been out there speaking against me
as I have heard in some of the states, but my feeling is we need
responsible laws just make sure were hitting the irresponsible people
not the responsible ones.
***Editor’s Note: The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is attempting to set up
interviews with the remaining presidential candidates. We will provide
information on their views on the most important issues to sportsmen as
it becomes available.
About USSA: The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance’s watchdog efforts protect
hunters’ rights and the interests of anglers, trappers and recreational
shooters in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress, and
through many public education programs. The USSA has more than 150,000
registered Sentries that regularly receive information about
conservation issues, and then they actively work to promote and protect
scientific conservation through calls and contacts. For more information
about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and the Sentry program, call (614)
888-4868 or visit www.ussportsmen.org.
__________________
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2013 World Champion Bluetick, 2013 AO Overall Bred By winner GRCH 'PR' Sexy and I know It (breeder)
2015 AO Overall Dual Champion NTCH GRCH 'PR' Sexy and I know It (breeder/owner/handler)
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03-08-2012 02:43 PM
