Head Hunter pegged to head U.S. Fish & Wildlife

Animal advocates across the country are up in arms – or would be if they owned any.

The Bush Administration has named Matthew J. Hogan as acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS.) Hogan is a hero of heavy-hitting hunters across the nation. He was head lobbyist for Safari Club International, a trophy-hunting club whose high-rolling members hand out awards for dispatching rare species around the globe.

One might wonder how anyone who was once a lobbyist for an elite club representing 40,000 or so wealthy trophy hunters and legislative director for Congressman Pete Geren of Texas before moving on to be the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation’s liaison with the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus could land a job as head of the organization charged with protecting rare species around the globe – wait a minute: lobbyist; work for a Congressman; liaison to a Congressional caucus; then an administration appointment. Never mind.

Sure all the animal-rights whackos are upset, but they’re not alone. Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), one of the oldest and most respected animal welfare organizations in the country, had this to say about the appointment:

“Having a Safari Club lobbyist in charge, even temporarily, of the federal agency that is supposed to protect endangered species is precisely the wrong course to pursue for any administration. Someone with a true wildlife conservation ethic, not an allegiance to the trophy hunting industry, should be nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the permanent director as soon as possible.”

What’s all the hoopla? SCI is just another sportsmen’s club taking it on the chin. “Grand Slam” and “Inner Circle” awards are simply the result of friendly competition, like Saturday “best ball” scrambles sponsored by local golf clubs. So what if an SCI member has to kill 322 different species or sub-species in order to complete all 29 award categories. I mean, who’s got a wall that big anyway?

It’s not like they’re killing endangered Indian barasingha (swamp deer) or Eld’s bow-antlered deer or Arabian oryx – no wait, they do kill those and other rare species. But it’s an amazing test of ingenuity and skill.

Some SCI members have helped create ways of avoiding continent-hopping to bag trophies by supporting “canned hunts” right here in the good ‘ole US of A. About a dozen ranches, 11 in Texas and one in Florida, in the U.S. offer trophy hunting through special permits granted by the FWS. If you got the money, honey, we got the game.

SCI members who do go globetrotting in their quest of trophies sometimes run into problems getting those trophies back to their wall. But wily sportsmen are not easily denied. Kenneth E. Behring, SCI member who scored an endangered Kara Tau argali sheep in Kazakhstan, was apparently dismayed when the Smithsonian Natural History Museum — whom he had dropped a friendly $100 million on — would not help him import his trophy after he had it mounted in Canada. Maybe he needed the socks, or is that argyle?

But you know, my animal advocate brothers, maybe we need to change tacks. After all, it’s not non-game critters like spotted skunks or scarlet tanagers invading suburbia requiring professional hit men to bait them then blow their brains out after dark. It’s game animals.

U.S. wildlife agencies and their constituents have proven time and again that if those willing to pay for it step forward they can create surpluses of certain animals. I think we need to establish bag limits for animals like spotted owls and Indiana bats, then tout their cunning primordial natures. We could even have slogans like “Whooo says it’s easy to kill an owl?” I wonder what the creel limit for snail darters should be?

(Don Hendershot can be reached at ddihen@earthlink.net)