Utah Measure Draws Bead on Hunting Bans

First, voters banned cougar hunting in California in 1990. Next, they protected bear in Colorado from bait and hound hunting in 1992. Then voters in Oregon and Washington stopped the baiting and hounding of cougars and black bears.

Utah hunting and fishing groups took one look at the record of wildlife ballot measures this decade and decided a preemptive strike was in order.

The result is Proposition 5, a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot that would amend the Utah Constitution so that any future citizens’ initiative dealing with wildlife would require a two-thirds majority to pass. All other initiatives would continue to require a simple majority.

The measure’s fate is being watched by animal-welfare and sportsmen’s groups across the country.

“We just felt that it was time to take a proactive position and protect Utah’s wildlife and wild areas from Washington, D.C., activists’ agenda,” said Don Peay, spokesman for Utahans for Wildlife Heritage and Conservation, which is backing the measure.

Only one state, Alabama, has passed a constitutional amendment preserving the right to hunt and fish. Minnesota voters are being asked to do the same in November. Ohio voters will be asked to outlaw the hunting of mourning doves.

In Utah, sportsmen’s groups are running into opposition from more than animal-rights advocates. Proposition 5 is opposed by the Utah League of Women Voters, Common Cause and others who say that it has an ironic flaw: The measure placed on the ballot by the Legislature asks Utah voters to decide, by a simple majority, that future voters will not be trusted to decide these issues unless 67% of them agree.

“Their lack of trust kind of astonishes me,” state Sen. Millie Peterson said of her colleagues. “They trusted voters to elect them.”

Sen. David Buhler said the measure is overkill. “If someone were to come up with some crazy anti-hunting proposal, they’d vote it down,” he said.

Peay conceded that Utah voters probably would oppose any curbs on hunting, just as voters in Idaho and Michigan rejected bans on bear baiting and hounding. But there’s no guarantee.

Utah is becoming increasingly urban, and during a 1997 visit to Utah, a national executive of the Humane Society talked of organizing an anti-cougar-hunting campaign.

“Their end agenda is to end all hunting and fishing,” Peay said. “It’s a $500-million industry. It’s too big to leave to a gamble.”

The Utah Voting Rights Coalition, which is fighting the measure, is outgunned financially by sportsmen’s groups. The coalition raised $28,000 by mid-September, versus $420,000 raised by the Utahans for Wildlife Heritage and Conservation.