Trump has imposed an image of hunting on all US hunting licenses. A proposal to change this plan anger the hunters

The hunters are shouting “hen” about a proposed change to a $ 25 stamp they are required to purchase from the US government as part of their official hunting licenses.

Under a new rule proposed by President Joe Biden, the stamp would no longer need to include an imaginary reference to hunting, which was a requirement under President Donald Trump.

“Man… the artists continued to express their dissatisfaction with this [hunting] element being a requirement for all entries, ”said the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which holds an annual competition for a new stamp design, in a statement. declaration in June. “The service proposed this change to allow artists more freedom of expression when designing their entries.”

Not everyone is happy.

“Removing hunting themes from the waterfowl stamp would be a disgrace,” Mike Mancini, of Monroe, Wisconsin, wrote on the US Fish and Wildlife Service website during the 30-day comment period for the change. proposed settlement. “Hunters are the people who pay and pay for the North American model of conservation. We should be celebrated, not denigrated, for our efforts. “

Officially known as the Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, the stamp was introduced in 1934 following the passage of the Migratory Birds Hunting Stamp Act by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with the first drawing by the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. Jay N. “Ding” darling. The national competition, the federal government’s only juried art competition, began in 1949.

All but two of the proceeds from the stamp sales go towards conserving and preserving waterfowl habitat, raising over $ 1.1 billion to date.

Requiring entries to celebrate the hunt was not popular with some artists who found the restriction too restrictive.

Greg Alexander’s entry into the 2020 Duck Stamp competition, featuring a cinnamon teal and a used shotgun cartridge. Courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Services.

“It’s really, really tough,” said Rebekah Knight, a deer hunter and wildlife artist who has entered the contest dozens of times. Bloomberg. “This requirement places many limits on the work of art. You’re going to have a lot of unrealistic and cheesy attempts. “

Many entries from last year featured used shotgun cartridges or, as in Richard Clifton’s winning design, duck calls floating in water.

“The scenes appeared to some observers like rubbish and sparked a public outcry against the perceived politicization of what had been a healthy and beloved corner of the art world,” Audubon Magazine wrote.

Maynard Reece designed the 1959 Duck Stamp, perhaps the best-known of the series, featuring the King Buck retriever. The artist, who shares the record for most Duck Stamp wins with five, died in July 2020 at the age of 100. Courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife Services.

Hunting, on the other hand, takes center stage in what is arguably the most famous Duck Stamp, the 1959 drawing of a black Labrador Retriever carrying a mallard by Maynard Reece, who won the contest five times, tied for the most of all time, before his death at age 100 in 2020.

Sales of the duck stamp have declined over the past decades, falling to 1.5 million per year, from 2 million at their peak. Fish and Wildlife has sought to expand the audience for the Duck Stamp to others who support conservation, such as bird watchers and hikers, and there are concerns that a mandatory hunting theme may deter them from purchasing it.

This year’s competition, which is open until August 15, still has the hunting requirement in place. The contest drew unexpected attention to TikTok, where 22-year-old Kira Fennell garnered 2.5 million views on videos documenting her third entry, reports Buzzfeed.

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