{"id":818,"date":"2014-10-27T21:04:33","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T21:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/?p=818"},"modified":"2014-10-27T23:10:43","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T23:10:43","slug":"if-you-cant-debate-the-experts-silence-em","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/animal-policy\/if-you-cant-debate-the-experts-silence-em\/","title":{"rendered":"If you can’t debate the experts, silence ’em!"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is an anti-hunting animal activist to do when educated, hands-on experts wearing *gasp<\/em>* uniforms come out in opposition to their upcoming anti-hunting referendum?<\/p>\n

Why, they run to the courts and try to silence the experts, of course! In Maine, the HSUS-supported coalition group,\u00a0Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting\u00a0filed an injunction<\/a> that would order the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) to butt out of the discussion before the election — despite their background and expertise on such issues, despite the fact that being involved in such issues is kind of their job<\/em>. \u00a0If the injunction succeeded, there could be no opinions on Maine\u00a0Question 1<\/a>\u00a0on the IFW\u00a0website, no campaigning or participation\u00a0in television ads. No voice for the trained experts on one of the very issues they are supposed to be involved in.<\/p>\n

It may sound ridiculous, but when you’ve poured more than million dollars into the state<\/a> trying to push your referendum, winning at any cost probably becomes second nature. Fortunately for the sake of common sense and freedom of speech,\u00a0Superior Court Justice Joyce Wheeler did not support the injunction<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cRestricting speech on contested public issues is directly contrary to the public interest, which favors a robust and dynamic public discourse,\u201d Wheeler said in her 15-page decision. \u201cIt is [for] the voters, not the plaintiffs or the courts, to assess the relative merits of conflicting speech.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Wheeler said that DIF&W is \u201cmandated to \u2018encourage the wise use of [wildlife] resources.\u2019 Thus, DIF&W is statutorily required \u2018to attempt to persuade\u2019 the public to make wise use of these resources, or to make wise use \u2018more appealing or more likely to happen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Regardless of how you may feel about this particular referendum or even hunting in general, attempting to silence those who disagree with your viewpoint before an election is pretty low down behavior. And in this case, given the IFW’s background and expertise, it belies a fear of honest debate — something you should never be afraid of if you are running a campaign based on substance, facts, and the public’s best interest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regardless of how you may feel about this particular referendum or even hunting in general, attempting to silence those who disagree with your viewpoint before an election is pretty low down behavior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions\/828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}