VETOED!
Summary of SB 334
SB 334 Introduced by Senator Fielder, wife of Paul Fielder, Montana Trappers Association district director. SB 334 to "Revise DEFINITIONS of GAME animal, predatory animal".
LANGUAGE: SB334: AN ACT REVISING THE DEFINITION OF "GAME ANIMAL" TO INCLUDE GAME BIRDS AND FURBEARERS; REVISING THE DEFINITION OF "PREDATORY ANIMAL"; AND AMENDING SECTIONS READ MORE.
This 35 page bill is being portrayed as having minimal consequences and a simple cleanup. When in fact it has numerous potential unintended consequences.
Designed to reclassify species such as furbearers as "game" and add other species, i.e. red fox, raccoon and badger, to "predatory" status to facilitate more trapping and try to make it harder for the public to vote on trap free Montana public lands. In 2004, Montanans voted to preserve the Opportunity to Harvest Wild Fish and Wild Game Animals".
This bill wasn't at the request of Montana FWP but instead, from Fielder's fellow trappers who testified in support of SB 334, as did the poster child of Montana trapping, Dennis "Foothold" Schutz.
For those not familiar with "Foothold" Schutz, former Montana Trapper's Association Vice President, he stated in a news article, "We trappers cause pain and suffering and apologize to no one!"
*TFMPL compiled a document for Governor Bullock and presented the findings to pertient staff regarding HB212 and SB334.
