Veto Seven Anti-Predator Bills That Undermine Science-Based Wildlife Management

I am writing to urge you to veto seven bills currently on your desk that would dismantle decades of successful, science-based predator management in Montana. These bills represent a dangerous shift from conservation principles toward extermination policies that threaten our state's wildlife heritage and the ethical standards that sustain public respect for hunting. The wolf management bills would authorize snaring, night spotlighting, and baiting of wolves, create a bounty system, allow multiple wolves to be taken with a single license, and aim to reduce wolf populations to bare minimum numbers. These methods abandon fair chase hunting principles and cross ethical lines that Montana has maintained for generations. Bounty systems, in particular, have been rejected by modern wildlife management as ineffective and inhumane. HB 468 and related bear management bills would allow hounds to pursue black bears and create a spring chase season. More troubling, one bill would prohibit Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks bear managers from relocating any bear found outside federal recovery zones. Another would allow people to kill any bear perceived as threatening livestock, directly contradicting federal protections under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, as grizzly bears remain listed as threatened. Montana has achieved remarkable success in reducing livestock depredations and decreasing human-wildlife conflicts through prevention efforts while conserving these species. These bills ignore that proven track record and replace it with an approach focused on elimination rather than coexistence. As Tom Puchlerz of the Montana Wildlife Federation stated, these measures cross ethical lines meant to protect wildlife from incidental capture and injury. I ask you to veto these seven bills and support the continuation of science-based wildlife management that has served Montana well. Conservation, not extermination, should guide our approach to predator species. Our wildlife heritage and hunting traditions depend on maintaining these ethical standards.