Three of four states approve hunting and fishing amendments

In September we reported Tennessee voters would have the chance to approve a constitutional amendment protecting hunting and fishing despite no clear threat to the sports. On Tuesday, voters in Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina approved constitutional amendments protecting hunting and fishing, while voters in Arizona rejected a similar proposal. In Tennessee, the amendment needed half the votes cast in the governor's race plus one for approval and well exceeded that threshold, the Associated Press reports. The states joined 10 others that already constitutionally protect hunting and fishing. In Arkansas, the push for a hunting amendment arose after the state legislature approved an animal cruelty law that made the offense a felony. "Backers wanted to draw a clear line that would prevent hunters and anglers from being accused of cruelty," Chuck Bartels of AP reports. The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said the amendment was unnecessary but didn't campaign against it. In South Carolina the advocates of the hunting and fishing amendment said it was needed in case gun control supporters eventually tried to restrict the sports, AP reports.

The Arizona ballot measure failed despite the support of Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, the Game and Fish Commission and the National Rifle Association, AP reports. Proposition 109 "would have given the Legislature exclusive authority to regulate those activities, although it could delegate rule-making to the state Game and Fish Commission," AP writes. Critics of the Arizona proposal said it was unnecessary because there were no real threats to the sports in the state. (Read more)