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Third, perhaps the most important reason we do not stop hunts 

 relates directly to the issue of a hunter's legal and ethical 

 responsibilities. Inherent with any type of hunting or fishing 

 activity, the sportsperson involved is expected to know and to 

 abide by the regulations governing their actions. In wildlife 

 law enforcement, like all other forms of enforcement, the key 

 element to achieving legal and ethical behavior is obtaining 

 voluntary compliance by those persons engaging in the activity. 



If agents stopped hunts, many hunters would expect law 

 enforcement agents to regulate their actions. This would not 

 only be impractical but it also would run counter to hunters 

 traditional responsibility for knowing how to hunt in a lawful 

 ethical manner. 



In addition, agents in the Southeast Region receive numerous 

 requests to inspect dove fields prior to and during the dove 

 hunting season to "certify" that the fields are not baited. 

 However, we physically cannot meet the public's current number of 

 requests for agents to inspect fields, and the number of such 

 requests would increase substantially if we began an inspection 

 program. We should not undertake such a program unless we can 

 fully meet all requests and, at the same time, continue 

 conducting higher priority wildlife investigations. To do 

 otherwise opens the door to appearances or allegations of 

 favoritism by agents and contributes to diminishing the 

 landowners' and the hunters' legal and ethical responsibilities 

 to ensure that the area hunted is not baited. 



Finally, we do not inspect fields because the practice itself is 

 flawed, unless the specific area to be hunted is placed under 

 constant surveillance for a full 10 days prior to the hunt. 

 Federal and state regulations require an area to be totally free 

 from bait for 10 days prior to a hunt. We know from experience 

 that some state officers have inspected fields several days prior 

 to a hunt and no bait was present. The field then was found 

 baited on the day the hunt occurred, which clearly indicated the 

 bait was placed on the area after the officers' inspection. 



The Service and the vast majority of the states' are consistent 

 in their baiting enforcement practices. A survey of the 10 

 state game and fish agencies in the Service's Southeast Region 

 revealed that 80 percent of the states do not warn hunters about 

 baited fields, inspect fields, or post baited fields. All of the 

 southeastern states issue citations for hunting over a field 

 baited under the conditions our agents found on the Sanchez 

 field. 



The Service believes the majority of our constituents expect and 

 deserve the most professional -level of migratory bird management 

 possible, which includes sound biology and fair, impartial, and 

 equitable enforcement of the laws and regulations governing the 



