Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) has introduced legislation that would ban the hunting of grizzly bears anywhere in the country except for Alaska. Grijalva, who chairs the House Resources Committee, is a frequent author of anti-hunting bills and is consistently rated at 100% by the Humane Society of the United States. House Resolution 2532, has been referred to the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife and is scheduled to have a hearing on Wednesday, May 13, at 2 p.m. in room 1324 of the LHOB.

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Take Action! American hunters must contact their member of Congress today and ask them to oppose HR 2532. For the contact information of your Congressmen, visit the Sportsmen’s Alliance Legislative Action Center.

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Congressman Grijalva’s legislation would create a Grizzly Bear Scientific Committee to determine bear management policy in coordination with the Secretary of Interior. The committee of 18 people would include six people from the different regions of grizzly bear populations, six from native tribes in those same regions, and six more representing the agencies of the Department of Interior.

The bill only allows the Secretary of Interior to issue a permit to take a grizzly bear in extremely limited circumstances. Those exceptions include: for scientific or zoological purposes or for tribal purposes involving religion. They also include in those limited circumstances when a bear poses a threat to public safety or agriculture. In those instances, however, the secretary may only issue a permit if non-lethal methods of control have failed, if every native tribe in grizzly bear habitat agrees the bear cannot be relocated to their territory and if the governor of the state requests the permit in writing. HR 2532 expressly forbids any regulated hunting for grizzly bears by sportsmen.

“Congressman Grijalva’s legislation is a near total ban on the take of a grizzly bear regardless of need. His bill is so full of red tape and hoops to jump through that a state has virtually no hope of eliminating a dangerous bear,” said Bruce Tague, vice president of government affairs for the Sportsmen’s Alliance. “Further, HR 2532 ignores the scientific feedback from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state fish and wildlife agencies who have concluded that grizzly bear numbers have exceeded their recovery goals in many parts of their range.”

Violators of the new law would be subject to the same civil and criminal penalties as a person would be who took a species on the Endangered Species List.