Some legislators were misled on I-143

Editor,

Local voters should be aware that some of our elected officials are talking out of both sides of their mouth. While they brag about supporting sportsmen's rights and respecting Montana's Constitutional process, they are working in Helena to destroy Montana's hunting heritage by voting to allow the game farm industry to spread the fatal brain wasting disease known as Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) from captive deer and elk to Montana's healthy population of wild deer, elk and moose.

In 2000 Montana voters passed Initiative 143 which stopped the expansion of game farms and halted the spread of CWD in Montana. Other states and provinces in Canada have not fared so well. Captive game farm animals have spread disease from Alberta to New York and a dozen other states are reeling from the impact of CWD in wild and captive animals.

Traditional hunting values and economies are diminished where CWD is found and people are left to wonder why this happened.

One reason it happens is because legislators like Verdell Jackson, John Brueggeman, George Everett, Dee Brown, Rick Madje and Bernie Olson believe the lies and threats of blackmail by the game farm industry. These legislators voted no in 2003 to repeal I-143 and to take millions of hunting and fishing license dollars away from sportsmen and give it to game farmers, all because they incorrectly believed that the game farmers had lost a property right when I-143 was approved by the voters.

Game farmers sued the State of Montana and wanted tens of millions of dollars but no court ever held that any property right was taken from a game farm and, in fact, that states have a duty to protect wild game animals from greed and from legislators who vote that way.

Is it any wonder that Republicans lost control in Helena in 2004 when the leadership and their lackeys showed such a blatant disregard for the will of the people and for the Constitutional process that allowed voters to write and approve I-143?

Even before I-143 was given a chance to work and before the legal challenges were resolved, these legislators voted to represent a small special interest that worked against the people of Montana, especially the sportsmen of Montana.

Fortunately for Montana, I-143 is still in place and working as it was written because the misguided attempts to repeal it failed by the narrowest of margins. Unfortunately, legislators like Jackson, Everett, Brown, Brueggeman, Olson and Madje have never apologized for their treacherous behavior, and they do not deserve to be elected to any public office.

McGregor Rhodes

Kalispell