[Nj_federation_alert] Star Ledger - Panter Cracking

[ap.maurosr at verizon.net]

Assemblyman Panter must be feeling the pressure. He states in New Jersey s largest circulated newspaper that he finds me objectionable. I must say that it is the only honest thing I have heard him say about me since the NJOA was formed.

FYI
Ant 
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http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-8/11936365129000.xml&coll=1

Sportsmen rally to take aim at two new bills
Organizers say fish and hunt rights at stake 
Monday, October 29, 2007
BY SULEMAN DIN
Star-Ledger Staff 

Hunters, anglers, trappers and riflemen united yesterday in Monmouth County to rally their opposition to two bills they fear will end hunting and fishing in the state. 

"We're fighting for a different type of freedom, outdoor freedom, and our oppressor is Trenton," Anthony Mauro, chairman of the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance, said at the Clarksburg Inn in Millstone. 

Mauro and his supporters oppose legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Michael Panter (D-Monmouth) and state Sen. Ellen Karcher (D-Monmouth) that would change the makeup of the state Fish and Game Council and eliminate wording that recognizes the recreational use of animals and fish for hunting and fishing. 

The council currently has 11 members. By law, six of those members must be either hunters or fishermen. There is a need to change the council to include other voices, Panter said, because of conflicts of interest among hunters sitting on the council. 

The bill would cut the council to "seven political appointees recommended to the Governor," according to the outdoor alliance's Web site. 

"It's really an ethics reform," Panter said. "I've fished many times. As I tell any hunter, I support their right to hunt." 

But Mauro said one bill legislation replaces the word "game" with "wildlife," setting up a situation in which hunters would not know what they would be allowed to kill. 

Mauro also charged the council changes were aimed at bringing in animal rights interests opposed to hunting and fishing entirely. 

"Panter and Karcher are the gateway for animal rights activists to Trenton," he said. 

That message brought out hunters like Dan Schwartz, who was among the 500 people attending the raucous rally. 

The audience included people holding signs reading "Kiss my striped bass" and "I fish, I vote." 

"I've been hunting since I was knee-high," said Schwartz, 35, of Williamstown. "It's everyone's right to try it. Once it's gone, it's gone."    
 
Some attending the event wore camouflage and fluorescent orange hunting gear. A few wore T-shirts emblazoned with a dig at the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: "People Eating Tasty Animals." 

Animal rights activists and politicians were repeatedly referred to as the main opponents in an effort to encroach upon the outdoor sportsman's lifestyle. 

"I'm tired of legislators who want to play politics with our wildlife," said Jack Spoto, president of United Bowhunters of New Jersey. 

Those at the rally also called for an amendment to make hunting and fishing a constitutional right. 

Panter, however, dismissed Mauro and his supporters as a fringe element among hunters. 

"This group is really political and are completely misinforming people about the bill," he said. "I find (Mauro) objectionable." 

Pressure from the alliance, though, was cited as the reason the co-sponsor of Panter's legislation, Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, decided to remove her name from the bill. 

In a letter to Mauro, Greenstein explained she initially signed on the bill because it was presented to her as a nonlethal alternative to the bear hunt. 

"I have subsequently learned the concerns of groups and individuals who fear that, if passed, (it) will create a board that has the potential to silence the opinions of hunters," she wrote. 

The politics on display were distasteful to Tony Luisi and Ray Mikulewicz Jr., friends and fellow deer hunters. 

"No one should try to change our lifestyle," said Mikulewicz, of Robbinsville. 

Constantly working against sportsmen, Luisi said, was the negative perception the public has of hunters as people who enjoy killing. 

"We're not murderers," he said. "We eat what we kill." 



Anthony P. Mauro, Sr.
Chairman, New Jersey Outdoor Alliance http://www.njoutdooralliance.org