33 



that you gentlemen who are law abiding citizens — even a State 

 senator and a respected sheriff — good, law-abiding citizens of this 

 country have been put through what you all have been put 

 through. I think it is a real shame, and I am sorry that this has 

 happened to you. 



Thank you very much. 



Mr. Williams. Thank you. 



Mr. BOE. Thank you, sir. 



The Chairman. The gentlelady from Wyoming. 



STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA CUBIN, A U.S. 

 REPRESENTATIVE FROM WYOMING 



Mrs. CUBIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



It seems obvious to me that we do need to do something about 

 the law, and I do not wish to drive a wedge between the U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife and anyone else, but what I do want to do is to follow 

 up a little bit on the ranking member's discussion with Sheriff 

 Oelrich. 



I believe the ranking member asked you if you would stop a 

 crime that you saw going on or if you ever engage in sting oper- 

 ations, and you have to wait until the crime occurs. I just wanted 

 to ask would you not stop that immediately? The moment the crime 

 occurred, would you not stop it? 



Mr. Oelrich. Yes, we would stop it the first time that there was 

 a violation. And that was one of the points that we wanted to bring 

 out, that when that first shot went off, it seems to me the obliga- 

 tion of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was to stop that hunt. 

 If they say, well, no violation takes place until the hunting takes 

 place, but yet, we are talking about getting in there at 1:00 and 

 them coming in at 4:30. 



So, number one, if you are charged with preserving the wildlife 

 resource, do not wait 3 hours or whatever for this to go on and on 

 and on and then come in. So, it gives me the impression that there 

 was more to it than just stopping the hunt, and it was more like 

 let us get some statistics here with some dead birds and those 

 kinds of things that will be advantageous to our position. 



So, the short answer to your question is absolutely, we would 

 stop it when we had a violation. In other words, to let it go on 

 would be worse. In fact, this has happened in several areas of the 

 United States where they knew these robbers would go in, and 

 they were outside waiting for them to come out. And meanwhile, 

 they pistol-whipped and beat the people inside, and that really 

 caught law enforcement in a very untenable situation. 



Mrs. CUBIN. Right, and it is my understanding that the mission 

 of the Fish and Wildlife Service is to protect the resource. 



Mr. Oelrich. Right. 



Mrs. CUBIN. So, if there had not been some other agenda, it ap- 

 pears that once one bird was shot by one hunter 



Mr. Oelrich. Right, or shot at. 



Mrs. CUBIN. Right, that the whole hunt should have been put 

 down at that point 



Mr. Oelrich. Right. 



Mrs. CUBIN. [continuing] — rather than 300 birds later or 3.5 

 hours and several birds later. And that is troubling to me. I wish 



