Right to Hunt amendments are a solution in search of a problem.

Why Right to Hunt constitutional amendments are a solution in search of a problem

Lately, we’ve been talking a lot about the power of language and the ways in which entrenched hunting interests manipulate narratives to maintain control over wildlife management. From the absurdity of calling grizzlies a “renewable resource” to the deeply flawed framing of predators as criminals, these rhetorical strategies all serve a larger goal: ensuring that our current, broken system remains intact. That brings us to one of the most blatant examples of this culture war in action—Right to Hunt amendments.

At first glance, these amendments might seem like a reasonable safeguard for a long-standing American tradition. But scratch the surface, and you’ll quickly find they are a solution in search of a problem. No state is threatening to outlaw hunting. No serious conservation group is advocating for an end to all hunting. So why the push to enshrine it in state constitutions? Because large pro-trophy hunting and gun organizations need a perpetual sense of victimhood to keep their audience engaged—and donating.

These amendments claim to “protect” hunting, but from what exactly? Hunting is legal in every state. So why push these laws? Well, it’s not about protection. It’s about fear. It’s about creating a false sense of crisis. Groups like the NRA and trophy hunting organizations use these fights to rally their base—convincing hunters they’re under attack while raking in donations.

And make no mistake, this is an ongoing battle. Right now, eight states are actively considering Right to Hunt amendments:

• Missouri – HJR56 (2025 session) – Legislation
• Oregon – SJR13 (2025 session) – Legislation
• New Jersey – ACR125 (2024-2025 session) – Legislation
• Ohio – HJR1 (2025-2026 session) – Legislation
• Iowa – HJR1 (2025-2026 session) – Legislation
• New York – S02428 (2025-2026 session) – Legislation
• Michigan – HJRC (2025-2026 session) – Legislation
• West Virginia – HJR16 (2025-2026 session) – Legislation

Right to Hunt amendments aren’t about securing access to sustainable food sources or ensuring ethical wildlife management. They are about codifying hunting as the dominant, unquestionable form of interaction with wildlife. They strip states of the ability to adapt management policies based on new ecological data, favor hunters over the general public, and, in many cases, explicitly elevate hunting and trapping above non-lethal solutions.

These amendments are also deeply political. They serve as a rallying cry to activate hunters with manufactured outrage, making them believe their way of life is under siege when, in reality, it’s being catered to at every level of wildlife governance. The real threat here isn’t to hunting—it’s to the possibility of reforming wildlife management to prioritize ecosystems over special interests.

If hunting organizations were truly interested in conservation, they would welcome nuanced discussions about wildlife policy. Instead, they rely on fearmongering and misinformation to push these amendments through, ensuring that they remain the loudest voice in the room. It’s time to call these efforts what they are: a political ploy designed to entrench an outdated and extractive approach to wildlife management under the guise of “rights.”

The real question isn’t whether hunting should exist. The question is whether our wildlife policies should continue to be dictated by those who see animals as nothing more than targets and trophies—or whether we should move toward a model that values entire ecosystems, biodiversity, and the broader public interest. These amendments aren’t about protecting a right; they’re about ensuring that the status quo never changes.

If we care about the future of wildlife, we need to move beyond this manufactured crisis. Our laws should reflect science—not political theater.

Take action: If you live in one of these states, contact your legislators and tell them to oppose these amendments.

A Small Group Can Change the World Because We Must

Margaret Mead’s famous words—“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”—have never felt more urgent than they do today. The stakes for wildlife, public lands, and democracy itself are higher than ever, and those in power know it. That’s why they’re working so hard to dismantle every safeguard, silence dissent, and put corporate interests ahead of ecological integrity.

We are living through an era where the most basic norms of governance and conservation are being destroyed in real-time. A government that once at least paid lip service to protecting public lands and wildlife has been handed over to profiteers and extractive industries. The recent mass firings at the Department of the Interior—gutting the very agencies tasked with stewarding our nation’s lands and wildlife—are just one example of the destruction unfolding before our eyes. National Park Service employees, Bureau of Land Management scientists, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists—thousands of professionals who dedicated their lives to public service were tossed aside in an effort to strip the government of expertise and accountability.

These are the very people who protect our public lands, safeguard endangered species, and uphold the environmental laws that keep ecosystems functioning. And their dismissal is part of a broader effort to dismantle environmental protections in favor of industry profits.

To what end? To clear the way for billionaires and industry lobbyists to do as they please. To ensure that our national parks, public lands, and the wildlife that depend on them are no longer managed for the public good but instead serve the highest bidder. To rig the system even further in favor of those who already hold power, so that everyday people—those who actually care about the future of our planet—have even less say in what happens next.

We’ve seen this playbook before. Hollow out the agencies responsible for conservation. Silence scientists and experts. Rewrite the rules to favor extractive industries. The goal is clear: weaken any opposition to the destruction of our natural world. But here’s what they underestimate—people care. And when people care, they fight back.

But this is where Mead’s words come into play. The people behind this destruction are a small, powerful group. But so are we. And history shows that when determined people make a principled stand against injustice, they can change the course of history.

As an openly fascist administration guts environmental protections, fires thousands of federal workers, and hands over our public lands to the highest bidder, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But history tells us that when those in power act recklessly, ordinary people must rise to meet the moment.

Right now, it is easy to feel hopeless. The forces we are up against seem insurmountable. But the truth is, the fight for wildlife and wild places has always been an uphill battle. Those in power have always prioritized profit over protection, control over coexistence. Yet time and again, grassroots movements—people like you, like us—have fought back and won.

Those victories weren’t handed to us; they were won through relentless organizing, speaking out at meetings, and refusing to back down. There are so many examples that can serve as a testament to what happens when people come together with a shared vision for justice.

We don’t have the luxury of waiting for the system to fix itself. We are the system’s correction. Every time we show up at a wildlife commission meeting, demand transparency from decision-makers, or challenge the status quo, we are doing what those in power fear most: reminding them that this world does not belong to them alone.

This is not the time to step back. It is the time to lean in. To be louder. More relentless. More unapologetic in our demand for ethical, science-based, and just wildlife management. The people tearing apart protections for wildlife want us to believe that we are powerless—but they wouldn’t be working so hard to silence us if that were true.

Now is not the time for despair—it’s the time for action. We must demand better from our leaders. We must show up at wildlife commission meetings, contact lawmakers, and build coalitions that challenge the status quo. The forces seeking to undo decades of environmental progress may be powerful, but so is the will of an engaged public.

The only thing that has ever changed the world is a small, committed group of people willing to fight for what is right. We have no other choice but to be that group.

We are not powerless. We are not alone. And as history has proven time and again, a small group of committed people can, indeed, change the world. Join us. Speak up. Take action. The future of wildlife—and our shared future on this planet—depends on it.

5 Actions You Can Take Right Now for Wildlife: 

1. Speak up at Wildlife Commission Meetings: State wildlife commissions make crucial decisions about hunting policies, predator management, and ecosystem protections—but they’re often dominated by special interests. Find your state’s next commission meeting and comment on plans or ask them to prioritize the State Wildlife Action Plan funding and programs to protect biodiversity.
2. Contact your elected officials: State and federal lawmakers must hear from constituents who care about wildlife. Call or email them and demand federal funds be restored and employees who have been let go be rehired.
3. Then, follow that with a demand to your federal elected officials that they halt Elon Musk’s unelected takeover of federal spending and federal agencies. He has not been appointed or confirmed to a position and what he is doing is illegal. Call your representatives and demand they stand up against attacks on wildlife and public lands. You can reach Congress through the switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
4. If you can, volunteer your time. Nonprofits are the frontline of the fight in this moment and they need your assistance, your donations, and your voice.
5. Finally, share this with everyone you can. Education is power! Share posts from us and other advocacy groups, talk to friends and family, and challenge the dominant narrative that wildlife only has value when they’re of use to us.
6. BONUS: if you’re ready to take it even further, check out The General Strike US. Once they hit 10 million people, they’re calling for a mass strike to disrupt business as usual and demand real change.Direct action has a critical place in this fight. We need a full-spectrum approach—protests, occupations, and public demonstrations alongside strategic policy engagement, legal challenges, and sustained pressure on decision-makers. The more people we mobilize, the harder it becomes for them to ignore us. Let’s fight on all fronts!

Black History Month is a Call to Action: Why Wildlife Advocacy Must Include Justice for Black Communities

Black History Month is a Call to Action

Why Wildlife Advocacy Must Include Justice for Black Communities

February is Black History Month—a time to celebrate the achievements, contributions, and resilience of Black communities. But it must also be a call to action. Recognizing Black history means reckoning with the systemic injustices that Black people have faced and continue to face in every aspect of society. For those of us in the wildlife advocacy space, it is not enough to focus solely on protecting animals while ignoring the struggles of marginalized people. Our movement must be intersectional, because justice for wildlife is inseparable from justice for people.

If we won every victory for wildlife—ended trophy hunting, reformed state wildlife agencies, banned cruel trapping, and restored habitats—but Black people in this country were still being disproportionately subjected to police violence, denied access to safe housing and healthcare, and never paid reparations for the fact that enslaved Africans built the United States into a global superpower, would that be a true victory?

Would we call it progress if wolves, grizzlies, and bison thrived, yet Black communities remained locked out of land ownership, environmental decision-making, and access to the outdoors due to structural racism? If state wildlife commissions reformed but continued to reflect the same privileged, exclusionary power structures that have historically silenced Black voices?

No. That would be a hollow, unacceptable victory.

Some people in animal and wildlife advocacy say, “We have to focus on the animals.” But focusing on wildlife does not mean ignoring people. If we want lasting conservation victories, we must fight for a world where all people—especially those who have been systemically oppressed—have safety, security, and access to resources. The same structures that allow the destruction of ecosystems, the poisoning of water, and the decimation of wildlife populations also uphold racial and economic injustices. The forces that prioritize profit over protection harm both animals and people, particularly Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities.

Ethical treatment of animals and the natural world is deeply intertwined with justice, compassion, and respect for all people. The concept of intersectionality—the idea that systems of oppression are interconnected, and the exploitation of animals, the destruction of nature, and the marginalization of people all stem from the same root causes of power imbalance, dominance, and exclusion—is a vital one to adopt in your advocacy.

You want to protect wolves, mountain lions, and other persecuted wildlife? Then you must also stand against the systems that treat Black people as expendable and deny them justice. Conservation cannot succeed in an unjust society.

Some in our movement say, “I just like animals more than people.” But we need you to care. We need you to recognize that the suffering of people and the suffering of animals are interconnected. The very policies that allow for the brutal slaughter of wolves, the destruction of forests, and the pollution of rivers are the same policies that exploit Black, Indigenous, and low-income communities.

Wildlife advocacy must be rooted in justice for all—because the same systems that exploit and harm people also destroy nature. When we say we “just care about animals,” we ignore the reality that people’s struggles are intertwined with the fight for a better world for all beings. You want to protect wolves, grizzlies, and wild places? That means fighting for policies where everyone—especially Black, Indigenous, and marginalized communities— can live safety, and access housing, food, education, and political power.

If you have room in your heart to fight for the lives of nonhuman animals, then you have room in your heart to acknowledge that justice for people matters just as much.

Black History Month isn’t just about remembrance—it’s about action. It’s about ensuring that the fight for justice is ongoing, that we don’t relegate Black history to the past while ignoring Black struggles in the present.

Wildlife advocates must ask:

• Who has access to outdoor spaces, and who has historically been excluded?
• Who benefits from conservation policies, and who is pushed out of decision-making?
• How do we ensure that our fight for justice includes justice for Black communities?

We must uplift Black voices in conservation, support policies that protect both people and wildlife, and actively work to dismantle the systems that oppress both. This means advocating for environmental justice, supporting reparations for Black communities, and fighting for policies that ensure equitable access to nature and decision-making power.

You want to protect wolves, mountain lions, and other persecuted wildlife? Then you must also stand against the systems that treat Black people as expendable and deny them justice. True wildlife protection and conservation is about more than just saving species—it’s about transforming systems. It’s about ensuring that both human and nonhuman communities can thrive together. If we ignore racial and social justice in our work, we will fail in our mission to protect the natural world.

This Black History Month, let’s move beyond performative allyship and commit to real, lasting action. Justice for wildlife requires justice for people. And that starts with showing up, speaking out, and making space for those who have been historically excluded from the fight.

A just future for wildlife requires a just future for people. Black History Month reminds us: our fight must be intersectional, or it isn’t justice at all.