Editor’s Note: This article is written entirely by the Hunters Heritage Council (HHC), a Washington State based organization dedicated to political action on
behalf of the hunting and related communities of Washington. The Washington Waterfowl Association (WWA) had no input into this article. This article is in
this newsletter is because of WWA’s membership in Washingtonians for Wildlife Conservation (WWC). WWC is a member organization of HHC. The opinions contained in this article are entirely those of the author, and the Hunters Heritage Council (HHC).
Pointing the Finger is Easy
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom.”
‐‐ Aristotle
I have written some harsh articles on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), and they have deserved every ounce of criticism. Part of my duty is to be a watchdog over the Department. Writing those critical articles is easy; pointing the finger is easy; what I am doing in this month’s column is much harder — heaping praise on the Director and WDFW. We should all WANT WDFW to be successful. Your WWA does many conservation projects with WDFW.
Every year since 2013 the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), has done a nationwide report on Americans’ attitudes toward hunting, fishing, sport shooting, and trapping. They started in 1973 in conjunction with the passage of National Hunting and Fishing Day. Each year, the Responsive Management, the most respected outdoor/sportsmen’s related polling company in the world do the survey. Congress, political parties, outdoor companies, etc., rely heavily on Responsive Management for their polling needs when it comes to outdoors issues. They are the best of the best!
Regarding Americans’ attitude toward hunting they asked the most simple, unbiased question possible: “Do you support legal hunting?” This immediately throws out poaching and asks the polled person if they support regulated hunting. On the last national survey overall, 80% of Americans approve of legal hunting. Four out of five Americans approve of hunting when the activity is asked about in a general sense. Again, note that the survey asked about legal hunting, so that poaching or other illegal activities would not be considered in the responses.
A follow‐up question was asked to the people who didn’t approve of hunting. The survey also asked Respondents — regardless of their personal opinion of hunting — if they agree or disagree that it is acceptable for other people to hunt provided they do so legally and in accordance with hunting laws and regulations.
Most Americans (92%) agree that it is acceptable, compared to only 6% who disagree. Given that the initial question showed that 13% of Americans disapprove of hunting, this follow‐up question suggests that just over half of those who disapprove nonetheless feel that others should have the right to hunt.
Now you’re probably asking: these numbers are great nationally, but what does that have to do with Washington State? Washington had a terrible survey where everyone was compartmentalized into a category and hunting was declining. It showed that the support for killing wolves to protect livestock had plummeted. It was an Ohio State/Colorado State survey that was just an anti‐hunting piece of garbage. Totally terrible. This is where my headline comes into play.
WDFW Director Kelly Susewind had a Responsive Marketing (RM) survey done for the State of Washington! The last RM survey in Washington was done in 2014 when Phil Anderson was Director. The support for hunting is almost identical to the national average, so all this malarkey that the anti‐hunting, animal‐rights (AR) crowd says that there is no support for hunting is just plain Hogwash! We have to give the Director credit where credit is due. This is very important. Director Susewind is a hunter, and he is with us. He just inherited such a mess from the Director Jim Unsworth (who resigned in January 2018) and the terrible people Unsworth put in power.
The R3 Initiative (Recruitment, Retention and Re‐activation) that WDFW is trying to put on is bold, but it is very good too. They are trying to do mentoring just like WWA is. Some of their mentoring ideas are rooted in a lot of common sense. I say kudos to them for trying. I have been very critical of WDFW in the past, but this RM survey in Washington is an outstanding thing. It gives us ammunition against the Commission. Northwest Sportsman Magazine has already reported on this. I give Director Susewind all the credit in the world for this. It took a lot of guts to do this. He stuck his neck out for us!
President, Hunters Heritage Council
