Post by: Humptulips on December 12, 2013, 05:03:29 PM
TFO Announces Trapping Ban Pushed Back to 2016!
TrapFree Oregon (TFO) announced on their Facebook page this morning that they have decided to push their anti-trapping measure for 2016, rather than 2014 as they had originally planned. This is excellent news, and is due in no small part to the strength of our pro-trapping coalition. We will continue to monitor TFO closely, however, to ensure that this is not misinformation intended to steer our attention away from their anti-trapping efforts in 2014. So far, we are only going on information provided by TFO; none of this is official, and the possibility still exists (however small) that they could still push a ban in 2014.
From TFO's Facebook:
"The TFO board of directors has pondered and discussed (and discussed and pondered) and has decided that our very best shot at getting trapping significantly reduced on public lands in Oregon is to go for a ballot initiative in 2016. Yes, we do realize that a lot more of our animals, both wild and domestic, will be trapped in the additional two years, but this is a MUST WIN- failure is NOT an option.
We have been working closely with the US Humane Society on this issue. They are also very concerned about trapping and continue to offer TFO a great deal of assistance. We will be consulting with their very experienced attorneys in rewriting our ballot initiative so it is truly air-tight and winnable. We are very excited about our "go forward" plans. The best part is that now we have the time to do it right.
Our leadership and core volunteers have not changed, we're just refocusing on 2016. We're going to redo our website to make it easier to navigate and we're going to continue to post to our FaceBook page with progress updates, event announcements and educational materials.
We want you, we need you, to continue your support of TFO in any way you can.
We can, we must, do this together."
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As you can see, they certainly aren't giving up their push for a ban on trapping in Oregon, and they still have the support of major national animal rights groups like Humane Society. We will continue to monitor TFO and other animal rights groups closely to ensure that we are prepared to defeat any future trapping bans in Oregon.
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Please be looking for future information from Pac/West and the growing coalition that is working to protect your right to hunt, fish and trap, and be sure to add us to your safe senders list to keep us out of your spam folder.
Chris West
Vice President of Operations
503-685-9400
west@pacwestcom.com
Post by: Bigshooter on December 12, 2013, 05:14:27 PM
Post by: Elkaholic daWg on December 12, 2013, 05:22:43 PM
Post by: Humptulips on December 12, 2013, 06:30:01 PM
I read about this awhile back on TFO's website. They were talking about doing it then because they thought voter turnout would be higher in a presidential election year and that would give them a better chace of getting a ban passed.
Couple other things come into play.
One is because the year preceding a Presidential election year typically has the lowest turnout it reduces the number of signatures needed to be gathered to qualify for the ballot.
Also TFO was conducting a poll about the Initiative. The results are crucial whether HSUS is willing to pump millions into the campaign. maybe the results were not to their liking.
One other thing may be at play. They are collecting signatures to ban traps in MT, protect wolves in MI and bear baiting, trapping and hounding in Maine. HSUS may have felt they were speading themselves to thin.
Post by: onetrapper on December 12, 2013, 09:32:57 PM
Check out the the fundraising auction they are running on Trapperman for michigan. We will have to remember that when the time comes