Today Humane Voters Oregon attended a meeting of the Oregon State Legislature's Joint Interim Committee on Ways and Means (Natural Resources Subcommittee) to advocate for anti-poaching programs and against more spending on so-called "predator control." You can watch a video recording of the meeting here. See our written testimony here.
The subcommittee met to consider dramatic cuts to state budgets due to the revenue impacts of coronavirus response measures. You can see the full list of proposed cuts to natural resource agencies here. We urged the committee to not adopt proposed cuts to anti-poaching programs created in 2019. We supported elimination of $400,000 of extra funding allocated in 2019 to "predator control," which kills wildlife such as coyotes and cougars deemed to interfere with agriculture and other business. As we told the committee, these programs are cruel and ineffective and should be replaced with programs that emphasize nonlethal measures to reduce conflicts with wildlife.
Special thanks to State Representative Brad Witt (Clatskanie) for his passionate testimony to the subcommittee about the importance of anti-poaching programs, which he has long championed.
The Natural Resources Subcommittee will continue to accept written testimony through 10 a.m. Friday, July 24. You can submit written testimony by email to: jwmnr.exhibits@oregonlegislature.gov.
Photo: Sceenshoot of Committee Meeting. Top Row (L-R): Legislative Analyst, Sen. Fred Girod, Sen. Lew Frederick. Middle Row (L-R): Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, Rep. Jeff Reardon (Co-Chair), Rep. Cedric Hayden. Bottom Row (L-R): Rep. Paul Holvey, Rep. Courtney Neron, Sen. Kathleen Taylor (Co-Chair).