FAIRFAX, Va. -- The National Rifle Association of America applauds the final passage in Congress of H.R. 2807, composite legislation that contains the Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act. The Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act gives the American hunter the opportunity to defend himself or herself in court, a right afforded all other criminal defendants.

      Hunters led the movement that convinced Congress to pass the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Eighty years have transpired since passage of this landmark, visionary wildlife conservation law, and only one aspect of this sweeping law stands out as the center of perpetual controversy -- the prohibition of hunting over, or with the aid of, bait. While the words themselves in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 do not embody a strict liability standard of guilt, most courts have treated violations of the baiting prohibition as a strict-liability criminal offense. Strict liability does not allow the hunter to mount a defense or present evidence that he did not know or reasonably could not have known that bait was present.

      The Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act recognizes nationally in statute what the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals realized in 1978 -- there are situations exceeding reasonable expectations of human responsibility. As the 5th Circuit acknowledged in U.S. v. Delahoussaye, unless a hunter can be held to a reasonable standard of responsibility, criminal conviction can become an unavoidable consequence of duck hunting.

      "Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act, the prohibition against use of bait in migratory bird hunting continues, and the fundamental principle of 'fair chase' remains," commented Mr. James Jay Baker, Executive Director of NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. "It does not weaken any of the protections for our migratory bird resource. Rather, it ensures that such prohibitions are enforced fairly. It prevents the irresponsible -- the criminal -- from escaping prosecution when they 'should have known' they were hunting over bait."

      The Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act also penalizes landowners, guides, or anyone else who baits a hunting area with the intent of causing an individual to illegally hunt over bait. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has historically failed to prosecute such offenders since the court-interpreted, strict liability, criminal standard made it easy to get convictions of the hunter regardless of the hunter's innocence.

      "The Reform Act," Baker added, "provides a balanced solution to our country's statutory and treaty obligations to protect and conserve migratory birds while meeting our fundamental responsibility to protect the rights of our citizens to fair and equitable enforcement of laws. It lays on the shoulders of American hunters a fair and reasonable requirement to take responsibility for their actions afield, and we welcome this burden."

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