Special Interests Spar with Condors and Kangaroos in California: Two Bills on Governor Schwarzenegger's Desk and the Resignation

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Wayne Pacelle
President and Chief Executive Officer
Humane Society of the United States

There is stench emanating from the political waters of California. It's the worst kind of foul rot from special interests. It corrodes the political process, and we just cannot stand for it.

The two culprits—each driving its separate agendas—are the selfish animal haters at the National Rifle Association, and the athletic shoe company Adidas.

First, the thugs at the NRA. The gun lobby has been having a hissy fit over efforts to restrict sport hunters from using lead ammunition in areas populated by the highly endangered California condor. The carrion-feeding birds—only 70 are left in the wild in all of California—survive by picking apart the carcasses of wild animals, including those shot by hunters and not retrieved. They unwittingly ingest lead shot and they die.

California Assemblyman Pedro Nava (D-35th) introduced a bill, Assembly Bill 821, to ban hunters from using lead ammunition in areas populated by endangered condors. The bill was approved by both chambers in a near party-line vote—with Democrats siding with Nava and animal groups, and Republicans aligning with the NRA.

Now a parallel drama has developed. One Fish and Game Commissioner, R. Judd Hanna—appointed to the five-member commission by Governor Schwarzenegger in February—has come out in favor of banning lead ammunition and urged hunters to shift to the use of copper and other non-lead alternatives instead (waterfowl hunters had to stop using lead shot years ago, and made the switch to non-toxic shot without difficulty). In response, 34 Republican state lawmakers—with their strings pulled by the puppeteers at the NRA—wrote to Schwarzenegger and demanded that Hanna be removed. Unbelievably, the Governor has called on him to resign and Hanna did in fact resign yesterday!

Let's get this straight. The Governor has asked Hanna—appointed to be a protector of fish and wildlife populations in the state—to resign because he wants to stop the poisoning of California condors. He is asked to resign because he does not blindly adhere to the orthodoxy of the NRA and its condor-killing ways. Think of it this way, American businesses are recalling toys produced in China because they contain traces of lead. But in California, we're supposed to sit still while the NRA loonies go blasting lead by the bushel basket into the wildlife food chain?

I am thunderstruck by this action. Why don't we place five mannequins in the seats at the Fish and Game Commission and just play tapes of NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre railing against gun melters and anti-hunting extremists with the racket of semi-automatic weapons blaring in the background. I cannot express the depth of my disgust and disappointment.