WFSA Current News - December, 2003 

December 31, 2003

Anti-hunting budgets in the USA
            The US Sportsmen’s Alliance has published a breakdown of financial and budgetary information about the biggest and most active anti-hunting groups. The information is derived from taxation data, and comes from Animal People magazine. The article is posted at http://www.ussportsmen.org/interactive/features/Read.cfm?ID=1211 .
            The Sportsmen’s Alliance report says: “The budgets for most of the groups stayed level or dipped somewhat, but People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) budget grew from $13.5 million to $16.4 million in 2002.  The Humane Society of the United States had an even bigger increase in its budget, from $58.8 million to $67 million.”
            Other groups mentioned with substantial funding include the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Animal Welfare Institute, Doris Day Animal League, and Fund for Animals. The Sportsmen’s Alliance article goes on to say: “The Animal People report indicates that PETA and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) should be considered as a single fundraising unit because of its joint partnership in Foundation to Support Animal Protection.”

December 19, 2003

Game law changes bill passed in Slovenia
            Substantial changes to game administration have been passed in the Slovenian National Assembly.
            The law now deems that both game and hunting rights belong to the state.
            The question at the centre of the debate concerned whether the forests could be expected to receive adequate care. With ownership of quarry species no longer being vested in farmers or other individuals, degradation in habitat care may follow.
            The complexities involved in the debate are illustrated in the number of amendments to the bill, which totalled 132, and in the supplements, totalling a further 50. Hunters are said to be in favour of it, where some other groups still have concerns. It remains possible the bill will be overturned.

 
December 5, 2003

Untraceable guns in smuggling
            The BBC News has released an article claiming that in the last year, there have been no fewer than four incidents where Customs officers uncovered caches of untraceable arms on their way to supply criminal markets. The article can be read in full at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/3256318.stm
            This latest seizure involved thirty submachine guns, said to be of Croatian manufacture. The important point in this case is that they were without serial numbers, and hence untraceable.
            British authorities are concerned that criminal organizations based in the Balkan nations are producing guns for sale to the black market. In the wake of the hostilities there, firearm manufacture can provide hard cash to those willing to take risks.
            Firearm designs can be copied and then made in bulk in even minimally equipped workshops. The ease of such operations continues to be underestimated by authorities bent on increasing the severity of gun laws.
            Representatives of the lawful gun trade, wishing to advertise their wares, have always marked their firearms, in the same way as any other manufacturing group identifies its product. Identification marks have been placed on guns for centuries. When guns are found in bulk without the customary individual marks, the manufacturer clearly wishes not to be identified. There is no wonder the British police are quoted as saying any alliance between British criminals and the Balkan mafias could be “disastrous”.
            These untraced arms shipments are an example of the illicit trade, seen here taking place in gun-banning Britain. This criminal commerce prompts a great deal of misplaced legislation, framed with good intent but finally harming only the lawful manufacturer and consumer, interested in sporting products.