16 



I can tell you that is not true. I was in the field, and I checked 

 the field. And I have been a hunter all my life. I saw no evidence 

 of bait. The regional director of the Game and Fish Commission 

 shot. He killed the legal limit of 12 birds that day. He inspected 

 the field; said he saw absolutely no evidence of bait on the field. 



But apparently, this was not sufficient for the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service. They determined that ii was baited, and they is- 

 sued the citations. I think it could have been handled a lot better 

 if the agents discovered bait on the field if they would have at least 

 come and told us that they saw evidence that the field was baited, 

 had gone to the landowner — and by the way, I checked with the 

 landowner on two occasions before the hunt to make sure that the 

 field was not baited, because I wanted to make sure that none of 

 the innocent guests of mine whom I brought there that day would 

 get caught up in an embarrassing situation. That was not the case. 



But what we need are solutions and changes to the current law 

 to bring some common sense to the situation. And I think we can 

 do that by simply addressing the regulations and require that a 

 hunter knowingly and intentionally be breaking the law. And I can 

 tell you that none of the people who were there that day thought 

 they were breaking the law. They were all innocent people, and I 

 was innocent in inviting them there. 



I can tell you one thing. I may be a lot of different things, but 

 I am not stupid, although some might think I am as a politician. 

 But I would not have invited my friends to hunt over a field that 

 I thought was baited and end up with the embarrassing situations 

 that we had that day. There were some individual violations, and 

 when you have 125 hunters in a field, even though they had been 

 warned, you cannot control the individual actions of everyone. 

 There were some unplugged guns, two or three; there may have 

 been one or two hunters charged with killing in excess of the legal 

 limit. Bear in mind, there were only four hundred and something 

 birds confiscated from 88 hunters; that is about five birds per hun- 

 ter average. So, it was not a slaughter, as I have read in some of 

 the proposed testimony that will come before this Committee today. 

 It was not a slaughter at all. 



A lot of fine characters and reputations have been tarnished in 

 Florida because of this ordeal. There again, it is not my intent to 

 bash the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; it is just to try to get some 

 changes. And we have gone to great lengths to try to do that, and 

 that is the reason that we are in Washington today talking to you. 

 I do not know about Washington, but in the State of Florida, we 

 are having to make extremely wise use of our tax dollars down 

 there. We just finished our session of the legislature week before 

 last; produced a $40 billion budget. And we are having to spend our 

 money wisely. And I believe that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 could spend their money a little more wisely and perhaps target 

 some other areas that might be of a little bit more importance. 



Let me just mention 



The Chairman. Your red light is on, so I will give a little- 



Mr. Williams. Thank you. Chairman, and I will conclude my re- 

 marks with that. 



[The statement of Mr. Williams may be found at end of hearing.] 



