Word: idaho
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Shortly after the sun rose that morning, Millage, a real estate agent from northern Idaho, shot the historic wolf. Within a few hours, he started getting angry calls - followed by angrier e-mails and Craigslist threats that included directions to his house - from people who found his contact information on his agency's website after reading his name in the news. "They didn't want to talk. They just wanted to yell," Millage says. (See pictures of animal attacks on humans...
...Idaho is one of several states dealing with hunter harassment, an issue that manifests itself in unique forms across the U.S. "Harassment is a problem," says Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association (NRA). "And what we're trying to do is make sure it isn't a problem. We're always trying to preserve the safety of hunters." The bill that recently passed both houses in Idaho - and was then signed by Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter on April 8 - extends hunter protections in two ways: by taking state-issued hunting permits, licenses and tags out of the public...
...making concealed-carry permits private, an effort that has been increasingly successful in the past few years. Supporters of such a public-records exemption say there's no reason the general public needs access to information about citizens who are simply exercising legal rights. "There are no downsides," says Idaho state representative Judy Boyle, a Republican who proposed the measure. If a hunter seems to be doing something wrong, she says, let the police investigate: "We're not vigilante people," she says. Millage, who, as a way to combat his harassment, posted on a website the vitriolic missives he received...
...conflict in Idaho escalated in January, when Rick Hobson, a local activist, made a public-records request for the names of hunters who had killed wolves during the season, then posted all 122 on a website and took out an ad in the Idaho Statesman directing people to the list. "There's a small local group of hunters who feel that they and only they have a right to decide what happens to wildlife on state and federal land," he says. "I posted the list to remind them that it's a public process, that hunting is not a right...
...fear of hunter-harassment clashes turning deadly is often what gains them attention, despite how rare they are among the millions of hunters who go out into the field each year. In Idaho's case, that fear has been compounded by years of tension over wolf reintroduction, as the unpopular animals were placed in Idaho by the federal government against the state's will, and by uncertainty about what it could mean to start shrouding hunters in anonymity. "Licensure has always been public, with good reason," Davis says. "Because it's a privilege you're asking the state...