Legislative issue
West Virginia
Bow Hunters – here we go again and it’s time to take action!!! The Senate is working to pass Senate Bill 237 which will remove DNR from regulation of captive cervids (deer farms). This would have enormous negative impact on the management of the wild deer resource. DNR stands to lose a huge portion of their federal funding which will significantly impact their ability to manage wildlife. An epidemic of Chronic Wasting Disease could cost tax payers millions and cripple the multi-million dollar hunting industry all in an effort to allow a few deer farmers to personally profit from raising genetically altered bucks to produce huge racks to be hunted behind a fence. Enough is enough!! We need you to call your Senator including the Senate President and as many other Senators as possible and deliver the message that you DO NOT support Senate Bill 237 and sportsmen want DNR in charge of regulating deer farms. It makes no sense to have an industry regulated and promoted by the same agency! There needs to be a separation of duties. Senate Bill 237 will be on 2nd reading on the Senate Floor – Thursday! Begin making your calls Thursday morning and do not stop until you have left a message for your senator, the Senate President and as many others as possible. Have your friends, family and neighbors call as well. Bill Cole, Senate President can be reached at (304) 357-7801 or
[email protected] Other Senators numbers can be found using this link: http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Senate1/roster.cfm We can't let these Senators say "no one told me"! Let them hear from you tomorrow and Friday and until we get this off the agenda.
Guys, this is really important. This could change our whole culture of deer hunting for us and future generations if CWD gets into the wild deer population.
Take five minutes and call the Senate president and your Senator
I know I joke a lot, but this is no joke. This is serious
Greg
I just made my call. It just takes a couple of minutes and you just have to give your name , county your from and the name of the bill 237 that I am not in support of. I also told them why. No arguments ,just info that will be given to the Senate President. They need to hear from us bowhunters
Just made my calls and it was obvious from the response that they are getting lots of calls. When they finish your sentence for you, you know they are hearing the same thing over and over. Let's keep it up.
Good. Made my calls this morning. Also put it all over facebook.
Made my calls too.
We gave every Senator a packet of information this morning but some of them may not have had a chance to review it before the floor session.
The bill moved on to 3rd reading tomorrow. Unless something happens, like tons of more calls to the Senate President and he removes the bill from the agenda, it will likely pass the Senate tomorrow.
Then we will have to begin the fight and education of the new House members and House leadership.
Keep up the good fight!
Senate passed SB237. Now the fight goes to the House.
Vote was 28 to 5.
We either didn't get our message thru or the Senate doesn't care about the opinions of sportsmen.
Be ready to start making calls and sending e-mails next week.
I can't believe we are still fighting this in light of the information provided in this document.
Gobbler - I know where you are coming from but anymore nothing is surprising.
Made another call (304}- 340-3210
Made my call this morning to as I passed it along to 5 other friends to make the call. It only takes about 2 minutes, they ask for your name and where you live.
Made my call to Speaker Armstead this morning. I understand politics, but with so much information on the negative impacts of deer farming, it's just unbelievable that such a bill would pass. I guess Walt Helmick has a lot of power.
I called and sent an email.
Made my call as well.
The bill was referred to the Finance Committee where hopefully they will take a very close look at the implications this could have.
I would be furious if my tax dollars had to be used to purchase a deer farm and compensate the owner for his losses. That should be called the "cost of doing business" but it seems government bailouts with our tax payer dollars and just accepted these days. Sad!
If you want to continue making calls and keep the pressure on Delegate Nelson is Chair of the Finance Committee. (304) 340-3230
HB 2033 is in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee. I sent an email to all of the House Reps. Several have commented back and said that it will make it out of the committee. However, several seem to be against it.
House Ag and Nat Res committee isn't likely to run HB2033 since that committee has already passed HB2105 which deals with the same issue. Of course, nothing would surprise me.
This stuff gets really confusing when they introduce multiple bills will slightly different things in them.
Makes me think they do it on purpose to keep the public confused on what they are doing and bills sitting there waiting to have ammendments made before the public can respond.
