Russia may soon ban both amateur and professional hunting, only allowing indigenous peoples in remote regions and certified rangers to hunt.
MP Oleg Mikheyev of the center-left Fair Russia parliamentary party told reporters on Monday that he had entered a draft law on hunting for preliminary discussion.
Mikheyev expressed his belief that hunting is unnecessary and immoral, regardless of whether one sees it as a sport, a pastime or an industry. “What many people call hunting now is more of a cruel killing that has nothing in common with the ancient art of fair competition between a man and a beast,” Mikheyev said in a press interview.
The MP noted that modern hunters use helicopters and specially built towers, and that in Russia’s Far East region many animals are killed on an industrial scale, and their carcasses are smuggled to China where they are used in traditional medicines.
Mikheyev argued that fines for poaching cannot rectify the problem, as they are too small and cannot be increased due to corruption. He suggested a total ban on hunting, and the introduction of criminal penalties for poachers totaling up to 500,000 rubles ($16,000), or three to five years in prison; poaching is currently an administrative offense in Russia..
The bill also provides for some exceptions – hunting will be allowed for indigenous peoples of the Far North, Siberia and the Far East regions, but on the condition that hunters use only traditional weapons. Hunting quotas will also remain for forest rangers, but candidates will now be required to pass a psychological test to get a hunting permit.
“People who feel pleasure when they kill animals cannot be called normal. The procedure can help us in early detection of latent madmen and murderers,” Mikheyev told daily newspaper Izvestia.
Mikheyev also pointed to African countries, saying that nations like Zambia and Botswana did the right thing when they sacrificed income from safari tourism in order to safeguard endangered species.
Fair Russia will discuss the new bill next Monday; if approved, it will be submitted to the State Duma committee for natural resources and ecology.
Source
VIDEO Wild Russia - The secret forest
Fantastic!!!!
This is a fantastic video. Please ban game hunting and save the animals.
Wow, Russia will consider it - Guess they really are smarter than the USA!
Super-great.
THANKS GOD, YOU'RE AWESOME!!!
I KNOW YOU'RE WORKING IN THEIR HEARTS....
COULD YOU PLEASE CONTINUE PROTECT AND SAVE ALL ANIMALS ON THIS WORLD , TO TOUCH HUMAN'S HARD HEARTS, MAKE THEM BE BETTER AND HELP THEM UNDERSTAND HOW TO LEARN ABOUT LOVE ANIMALS THEN THEY'LL STOP ABUSE AND STOP KILL ANIMALS EITHER.
IN THE NAME OF JESUS. AMEN.
Beautiful move , hospitable , loving - thx Russia for good example ...
Well, guess its too early to celebrate, it hasn't passed yet. But would be fantastic news and a model one could hope others would follow!
But smart to link "animal killers" to other crimes, all animal abusers should
be punished, since lack of empathy towards the most vulnerable (animals and children and women) are often perpetrated by the same people...
Wow this is wondaful news hope it goes through maybe otha countries will follow too and that way all this murder and meyhem will stop praying for my wolves and anotha thing why do they put on the bsd stuff about how many wolves have been killef I dont wanna see or hear that because I know I cant h s lp them but wish I truly could !!!
Ha,ha not a chance. Just because some clown proposes a total ban doesn't mean squat.
The day they ban hunting is the day they will start sniping those left-of-center one by one.
Way to go Russia! It is about time to ban hunting on animals for financial gain or pure sport! Now if the USA would just get on board with this and stop the senseless slaughters of our creatures big and small. I hope this passes. Imprisonment in Russia is not a hotel like it is here in the USA.!!