Safari Club International Supports Sustainable Predator Management in North America
Safari Club International (SCI) and Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF) are proud to announce their official support of sustainable predator management in North America, management which plays an essential role in the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.
SCI and SCIF adopted this position following extensive support for research on the dynamics between large carnivores and their prey, and SCI’s involvement in numerous lawsuits and legislation on predator issues. These issues revolved around state and federal species recovery efforts, delisting decisions for predators, states’ authority to manage wildlife, and the American freedom to hunt.
SCI and SCIF have adopted a position on this issue given the significant public interest and attention predators and their management garners. Unfortunately, much of that attention is the source of widespread misinformation about a subject of real importance to hunters and conservationists. As government bodies worldwide take an increasingly active approach to restricting hunting, it is more important than ever that SCI and SCIF convey the truth about hunting both prey and predator species.
“SCI, SCIF and those invested in the management of North America’s wildlife believe the successful recovery of predator species should be celebrated but also that these species should be managed responsibly, by states and tribes, to attain overall wildlife management and habitat protection objectives,” said SCI and SCIF CEO W. Laird Hamberlin.
SCI and SCIF fully support state management decisions that include legal, regulated hunting of predators, including the hunting of large carnivore species such as wolves, grizzly bears, black bears, mountain lions and coyotes.
Hamberlin added, “SCI fully supports sustaining predator hunting as long as science-based evidence continues to reflect its efficacy and sustainability. Misguided proposals to ban predator hunting or to treat large carnivores differently than other wildlife species pose an immediate threat to the North American model of wildlife management and to the successful conservation of species that have been derived from that model for over 100 years.”
SCI and SCIF recognize that regulated predator hunting can provide a legitimate recreational opportunity while ensuring the proper management and balance of predator and prey species in individual ecosystems. Like any other species, predators are not exempt from the public trust doctrine that underlies the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.
Among other tenets, the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation not only views wildlife as a public resource but believes sound scientific guidelines must manage the resource, whether the wildlife in question is species like deer and elk or large carnivores. In the North American Model, hunting is an important tool to manage wildlife populations, and therefore hunters have a crucial role in conserving our wildlife resources.
For 50 years, Safari Club International (SCI) has been the leading defender of the freedom to hunt and supporter of wildlife conservation worldwide.
SCI is unique in the scope of our ability to defend and advance our freedom to hunt. SCI is the only hunting rights organization with a Washington, D.C.- based international advocacy team and an all-species focus. SCI mobilizes our 152 chapters and affiliate network representing 7.2 million hunters around the world. The conservation projects of SCI’s sister organization, the SCI Foundation, support research, management and rural communities in North America, Africa and Central Asia. In addition, SCI’s Annual Hunters’ Convention is the world’s largest marketplace that celebrates our freedom to hunt.
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