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HAZE Temp: 54 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Friday, January 31, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend January 16, 2003 Threats left ODFW with little choice By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune They trickled into the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife headquarters amid the regular flow of e-mails and telephone messages about an agency- sponsored family rabbit hunt. But these words jumped off the computer screen and through phone headsets like none before: You made a mistake teaching children how to shoot rabbits. People ought to aim their shotguns at you instead. ODFW bureaucrats are used to snips and snipes from the public, but threats like this just don’t happen here. You should be hunted down and have a bullet put through your head, and leave the little bunnies alone. And they kept coming. At least seven threats of violence were made in less than a week against ODFW employees over a family rabbit-hunting workshop scheduled Jan. 11 at a state-run wildlife area near Corvallis. ODFW Director Lindsay Ball steamed. He saw fear in his employees’ eyes, heard uneasiness in their voices. How would you like it if people like me who care about rabbits teach our kids to hunt people like you? Ball had enough. He canceled ODFW’s participation in the rabbit-hunting workshop. A private hunting club then took eight of the 27 registrants on a short hunt at the E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area. It was the first time the agency canceled any hunt or withdrew participation in a hunt because of a protest, the threat of a protest or threats of bodily harm. Since then, the agency’s actions have become a springboard for hunters, animal-rights activists and even some ODFW employees to discuss whether the state should promote hunting. "Everyone has put their own spin on this," Ball says. "(But) this was strictly a security issue. "The bottom line is, we promote hunting and we’re not going to stop that. I want to see hunting continued in Oregon, period. We’re not going to back away from that. That’s what we are about." Matt Rossell, a Portland representative of In Defense of Animals and one of the protest organizers, had hoped the post-hunt dialogue would be about something dramatically different. A 33-year-old vegan whose group opposes all hunting in American society, Rossell says he wants the ODFW to be neutral about hunting and do nothing but provide hunting opportunities, enforce hunting laws and do some education. Rossell thought it was this message that Ball acknowledged when he withdrew ODFW participation from the rabbit hunt. Instead of hunters going out and killing rabbits and cutting off their tails, we should hunt you down and cut off one of your fingers. Rossell says he’s offended by people who make threats, and that sometimes he wonders if they are "saboteurs making us look like extremists." Either way, it does little to advance the animal-rights cause and should not cloud his message — a state agency should regulate but not promote hunting, he says. "We shouldn’t turn the whole discussion on a handful of wing-nuts making threats," Rossell says. The threats amounted to 5 percent of the total correspondence over the rabbit hunt, says Ann Snyder, who heads the ODFW’s Information and Education Division. Of the 70 comments in favor of the rabbit hunt, most came from within Oregon, Snyder says. The majority of the 80 comments in opposition came from outside the state, such as one e-mail signed by Angie Wright from the United Kingdom. I hope someone takes a pot-shot at you and is successful. The ODFW at first kept mum about the threats, trying not to get anyone "fuzzed up" about them, Snyder says. "But some of these threats were kind of scary and some of them came to small women who have nothing to do with the rabbit hunt," she says. Employees could not tell whether the threats were serious or just a poor way of making a point about rabbit hunting, Snyder says. You better watch your back, woman. "We don’t know if this stuff would escalate into any danger," she says. Ball, a former Oregon State Police officer who was once shot and left for dead while writing a fishing ticket near Portland, says he will offer department staff special training on how to deal with threatening people and how to assess the comments. "It’ll give my people confidence to deal with this element of society they’re not accustomed to," Ball says. "It’s landed here in the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and whether it stays or not I don’t know." The specific threats were also turned over to the OSP and Portland police, and they are being investigated, Ball says. Don’t think that certain people won’t remember you five or 10 years from now, long after you’ve forgotten about these messages. "We need to know more about these individuals and groups making these threats so we can see whether there’s any substance to it," Ball says. Rossell says the ODFW should not let any discussion about threats cloud the debate over the state’s role in promoting hunting in the 21st century. "The discussion’s not going away, that’s one thing I can guarantee," Rossell says. "The voice in our camp is going to get stronger." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search M Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S