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MR. CHAIRMAN: 



My name is Stephen S. Boynton, an attorney in private practice in Washington, DC and 

 Vice President and General Counsel of the conservation consulting firm of Henke & Associates, 

 Ltd. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to appear before the Resources Committee to present 

 testimony on the subject of the baiting regulations under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act 

 (MBTA). 39 Stat. 1702 (Aug. 16, 1916), T.S. 628, 16 USC §§703 etseq.; 50 CFR §§20.1 et seq. 

 The Congress has not reviewed this issue since oversight hearings in 1984 before the former 

 Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife Conservation and the Environment of the House Merchant 

 Marine & Fisheries Committee. U.S. House of Rep., 98th Cong., 2d Sess., Serial No. 98-44 (Fish 

 & Wildlife Misc.-Part 5) (Feb. 28, 1984). Sadly, nothing of a positive nature has developed 

 regarding the issues raised at that time. Rather, in point of fact, the baiting issue has become 

 more exacerbated due, unfortunately, to the twin pronges of unreasonable administration of the 

 regulations by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Division of Law Enforcement and the unyielding 

 position of the federal courts—including U.S. Attorneys— in a joint rush to convict under the 

 doctrine of strict liability in baiting cases. 



In my considered judgment, the time has truly come for the Congress to address this issue 

 in a positive fashion and to provide guidance to the sportsman, the law enforcement oflBcials, and 

 the courts. The judicial record and wildlife law enforcement history has graphically demonstrated 

 that the courts and the law enforcement officials have not, and in far too many cases, 

 conscientiously will not, provide the clarity necessary to disentangle the puzzle of baiting 

 regulations that face the sportsmen in their attempts to legally gun for migratory birds. 



My vantage point of experience to make these observations is that, as an attorney in 

 private practice, I have been involved in representing many individual sportsmen and incorporated 

 sportsmen's clubs in baiting cases throughout the nation. In addition, in the theme of "physician. 



