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Project 99
According to the US Census Bureau, the population estimate for New Jersey in 2006 was 8,724,560. In 2006, according to figures from New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife, there were 80,246 hunters in NJ.
This translates as 0.91% of the population of New Jersey hunts and 99.09% of the population of New Jersey does not hunt.
The New Jersey Fish & Game Council is an 11-member board that decides the fate of all wildlife in NJ--which animals will be hunted, in what numbers, when and by what means. Of the 11 members, all are hunters. Who is representing the non-hunting population in NJ when it comes to decisions regarding wildlife? Who is representing the 99.09%?
As a means to show our collective power, this project is designed to give voice to the 99%--those who do not hunt and who want to see a nonviolent way of handling human/wildlife issues in New Jersey.
Below you will find background information on the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife and the NJ Fish & Game Council. We hope that after reading this, you will lend your support to this project, make a statement about your concern for wildlife in NJ, support legislation to reform the Council and buy your very own NJ Non-Hunting License (to the right)!
History The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife (F&W) and the Fish and Game Council (Council) have complete authority over all of the wildlife in New Jersey. Since 1892, NJ Fish and Wildlife has been responsible for the killing of tens of millions of animals.
Each year they allow the slaughter of more than 1 MILLION animals. As you will see below, it is the Division and the Council that are the problem in New Jersey, not the deer, not the geese, not the bear or the over a dozen other hunted species in NJ. With proper, nonlethal and progressive methodologies and integrated strategies, conflicts with wildlife (and wildlife's conflicts with humans) can effectively and humanely be reduced.
NJ-DFW: A State-Run Hunting Club
The Division of Fish and Wildlife is a
state agency that is part of the NJ Department of Environmental
Protection. F&W
relies primarily on funds derived from the
sale of hunting and fishing licenses and related stamps and permits to
pay the salaries of its
employees. This arrangement creates a conflict of interest because the
state agency that should be protecting wildlife, instead relies on
revenue generated from their slaughter to insure its very existence.
Thus we have a
state agency acting like a private hunting club--beholden to the hunting
minority, not the non-hunting majority and certainly not the animals.
The Fish & Game Council: Agents of Death The Council is an 11-member board that is statutorily mandated to provide:
... a system of protection, propagation, increase, control and conservation of freshwater fish, game birds, game animals, and fur-bearing animals in this State, and for their use and development for public recreation and food supply, the council is hereby authorized and empowered to determine under that circumstances… freshwater fish, game birds, game animals and fur-bearing animals… may be pursued, taken (or) killed… so as to maintain an adequate and proper supply thereof…” NJSA 13:1B-30
Again as mandated by NJ state statute (NJSA 13:1B-24), the 11 members of the Council must be:
> 6 hunters recommended by the NJ Federation of Sportsmen; > 3 farmers recommended by the agriculture community; > the chair of the Endangered and Non-Game Species committee, and; > a person knowledgeable in land use management and soil conservation.
At this time, all eleven are hunters.
The Game Code: The Killer’s Manual Although touted as wildlife management, state sponsored, organized hunting is thinly veiled recreation. As stated above, the Council’s mandate to create recreational hunting is clear. While F&W makes public statements to the contrary, their own records and reports show how blatantly recreational all their hunting is.
The Game Code is the official document in which all of the hunting and trapping seasons are set. Annually, the Council votes on amendments to the Game Code.
These changes range from allowing new species to be hunted, to changing the number of animals whom a hunter is allowed to kill per day.
Each year the Council adds more amendments that create more killing. The following is just a sampling from Fish and Wildlife’s comments on the 2000-2001 Game Code, published in the NJ Register:
Former F&W Director Robert McDowell wrote the following in the State of the N.J. Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife:
"The Division will continue to explore ways to increase recreational opportunity for deer, wild turkey, waterfowl, upland game and furbearers, as well as to expand youth hunting programs.”
This quote sums up F&W’s attitude toward wildlife. Instead of protecting and cherishing wildlife, F&W looks at wildlife as nothing more than moving targets. The arguments that they put out to the public (starvation, public health, public safety, etc.) are merely a smokescreen aimed at hiding the real issue and attempting to make their killing more palatable.
Since 1983, Animal Protection League of NJ has opposed the state sanctioned killing of our wildlife. We have fought the opening of state parks to hunting in 1990 and the subsequent opening of county parks to the same slaughter in 1993. However, fighting individual hunts is no longer the way to go. We cannot continue to put out fires across the state. We need to address what fuels those fires, and that is the hunter-run Fish & Game Council. Please click on the link above and to the right to learn how you can support legislation that would reform the archaic and medieval Fish & Game Council.
Animal Protection League
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Purchase your NJ Non-Hunting License! Click below.
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