The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation has filed to represent sportsmen in a precedent-setting lawsuit brought by animal activists to derail hunting, fishing and trapping for abundant game wherever endangered or threatened species exist.

On Jan. 4, the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation (USSAF) asked U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. for permission to join a federal lawsuit brought by the Animal Protection Institute against the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. In October 2006, the animal rights group sued to expand endangered and threatened species protections to healthy and abundant wildlife populations.

"Our goal is to prevent the animal rights movement from manipulating the Endangered Species Act to ban hunting, fishing and trapping," said Rob Sexton, USSAF vice president for government affairs. "The case could set a precedent that affects the future of hunting, fishing and trapping and how they are used as wildlife management tools."

At issue is the legal argument brought by anti-hunters that trapping of any species should be banned in order to prevent the possibility of inadvertently catching federally protected Canada lynx, bald eagles and gray wolves. There is no data proving this to be a problem.

"It is important for sportsmen to understand this lawsuit represents far more than a strike against a single sport," said Sexton. "The trappers won't be the only ones impacted. If anti's can stop all trapping in a place where there is a risk of catching a Canada lynx, they can just as easily try to stop fishing in bodies of water where there is a risk of catching an endangered species of sturgeon."

This lawsuit also treads on states' authority to manage wildlife. An unfavorable decision would virtually require judges to close hunting, fishing and trapping.

As the case develops, the USSAF continues to defend sportsmen's rights in two nearly identical lawsuits brought by anti's against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. They also would set dangerous precedents that put hunting, fishing and trapping in jeopardy.

The USSAF has filed to join the case, along with the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, Maine Trappers Association, Fur Takers of America, and individual sportsmen Oscar Cronk, Donald Dudley and Alvin Theriault.

The U.S. Sportsmen's Legal Defense Fund is the nation's only litigation force that exclusively represents sportsmen's interests in the courts. It defends wildlife management and sportsmen's rights in local, state and federal courts. The U.S. SLDF represents the interests of sportsmen and assists government lawyers who have little or no background in wildlife law.

The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen's organizations that protects and advances America's heritage of hunting, fishing and trapping.