A judge in Portland on Friday said she would issue a ruling early next week on an emergency injunction seeking to halt the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife from using its resources to campaign against the statewide bear-hunting referendum.
Although Justice Joyce Wheeler gave no indication of how she would rule after a hearing in Cumberland County Superior Court, she ruled in favor of Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting on a second issue by ordering the department to disclose records concerning its political activities, according to a lawyer who participated in the hearing.
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Attorney Rachel Wertheimer, who represents Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting in its lawsuit against the department, called the judge’s partial ruling on Friday a “victory” and said she was optimistic that Wheeler’s ruling next week on the campaign funding question would also be favorable for her client.
Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting, a coalition of animal welfare advocates, filed a Superior Court lawsuit on Sept. 30 accusing the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife of illegally using taxpayer money to conduct a political campaign in opposition to the ballot measure. The lawsuit also sought to force the department to immediately respond to Freedom of Access Act requests concerning its political activities.
Question 1, which will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot, asks if hunters in Maine should be banned from using bait, traps and dogs to hunt black bears. The same proposal was rejected by Maine voters in 2004 by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent.
Wertheimer said the judge, in her ruling on the Freedom of Access Act requests, ordered the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to release its documents in two waves, one installment on Oct. 22 and another on Oct. 29.
“The issues are distinct,” Wertheimer said, regarding the judge’s ruling on Friday and the expected ruling next week. “But the judge had clearly reviewed most if not all of the relevant case law. She was very prepared and up to speed on all of the issues. I believe that we’re right on the law, and I’m optimistic that the judge will rule in our favor.”
Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting had initially delayed filing its lawsuit in hopes that the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife would comply with the law on its own, Wertheimer said.
“We had been waiting for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to respond to our Freedom of Access Act request, because those documents should provide adequate proof of their involvement in the campaign, but we couldn’t wait any longer,” Wertheimer said.
Timothy Feeley, a spokesman for the Maine Attorney General’s Office, which represents the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in the lawsuit, said department officials are allowed to voice their opinion on a ballot measure.
“Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has the obligation to provide the public with information and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s views on these issues,” Feeley said in a statement Friday afternoon. “Based on its experience and expertise, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife considers bear baiting, hounding and trapping to be both legitimate forms of bear hunting, and effective and necessary forms of bear management in Maine. Inland Fisheries and Wildlife also believes that if these activities were to be prohibited, it would severely handicap Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s ability to effectively manage Maine’s bear population as it is directed to do by law.”
Inland Fisheries and Wildlife officials told the Portland Press Herald last month that they have appeared in a number of campaign ads to say they are publicly opposing the referendum, but in the ads they stop short of telling Mainers how to vote.
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