In an 11th hour legislative effort to overrun the New Jersey Fish and Game Council with animal rights activists, Assemblywoman Annette Quijano of District 20 in Union County, along with state Senator Brian Stack from West New York, NJ in District 33, introduced companion legislation which could effectively replace three outdoor sportsmen on the council with three animal rights activists.
Specifically, Quijano’s Assembly Bill A6055 and Stack’s Senate Bill S4893 is an attempt to amend Section 26 of P.L.1948, c.448 (C.13:1B-24) concerning the statutory makeup of the 11-member Fish and Game Council in New Jersey which oversees hunting and freshwater fisheries issues. If approved by the full legislature and signed by outgoing lame duck Governor Phil Murphy, the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs would be tasking with appointment three members to the council from the hunting and fishing community, whereas the other three members “shall be individuals recommended to the Governor for 24 appointment to the council by animal welfare organizations in this State.”
“We have until December 30th to get legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Annette Quijano, A6055, so Governor Murphy can end future bear hunts before he leaves office,” said former New Jersey state senator Raymond J. Lesniak. A native of Elizabeth, NJ, Lesniak spent 40 years in the New Jersey legislature where he worked closely with animal rights organizations including the Humane Society on anti-hunting legislation. While Lesniak, along with the latest crop of urban democrats in Trenton, hope to ban bear hunting by replacing three hunters/anglers on the council with three animal rights activists, such legislation could have serious ripple effects across the freshwater fishing side as well.
While it’s highly doubtful that A6055 and S4893 would clear their respective committees in time for a final vote by the Senate and Assembly before time runs out in December, some hunting and fishing groups worry that the legislation could still move through a final “unanimous consent” vote in Trenton to put on Murphy’s desk before he leaves office in January.
