Michael A. Sawyers
E. Joseph Lamp is a professor of English and communications at Anne Arundel Community College, an avowed anti-hunter and a member of the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission. In his role as a wildlife adviser to state government, E. Joseph Lamp has worn out his welcome as far as I am concerned.
E. Joseph Lamp must be removed from the commission. Where to begin?
Let’s start with a little biographical history of Mr. Lamp. He is a Ph.D. I won’t refer to him as a doctor, not because I don’t respect his travel through academia to the ultimate degree, but because the Associated Press Stylebook tells us as journalists that a person is to be called “doctor” only if he or she is a medical physician. A person who has acquired the highest of collegiate degrees should have that inscription attached at the end of his or her name or be referred to as having a doctorate in such and such a discipline.
Members of the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission are appointed by the governor. They tell the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and its Wildlife and Heritage Service just what they think about wildlife management. The group meets, almost monthly, in Annapolis. The meetings are open to the public.
The commission has no direct power, as is the case in West Virginia, for example, where its vote is law. In Maryland, a vote by the commission is something to be taken into consideration by the state agency and its ultimate boss, the governor.
E. Joe Ph.D. is on record, many times, totally opposing bowhunting in Maryland. In fact, in print he has called it the “season of cruelty.” He is on record, frequently, opposing the hunting of bears in Maryland. He is on record opposing lethal management of mute swans, a massive bird whose presence in the Chesapeake Bay was extremely detrimental ecologically. He has supported bills in the state’s General Assembly that would prohibit or restrict hunting. He has told me personally that he is not against all hunting, but I believe that to be so much (deer) bologna because I have never seen anything that would validate that statement.
I won’t say that E. Joe Ph.D. hates hunters, but he seems to hate what they do. Likewise, I have no animosity toward Joe Lamp the human being. However, I do not try to stop him from taking part in any legal activities he enjoys. I would hope that the state agency would cease giving him an official platform in his efforts to stop my legal activities.
The hunters that do what Lamp appears to despise are the ones that fund, almost entirely, the agency that created the commission upon which he serves. He would rather have the DNR shoot and kill a nuisance black bear of more than 400 pounds that sniffed an infant in Garrett County than have it whacked by a hunter, which it was during the recent Maryland bear season. I know that because E. Joe Ph.D. said so in a comment to The Baltimore Sun recently. He was deriding Sun outdoor columnist, Candy Thomson, for saying that the bear season has become an accepted tool of wildlife management in the state.
Many anti-hunters are like that. They don’t mind if an agency representative or a hired sniper company kills excess deer, but they can’t stand it that a license-buying citizen would get lifelong enjoyment out of hunting for and sometimes killing those same deer.
E. Joe Ph.D. supported a bill that would keep young people in Maryland from hunting.
I am a license buying hunter and I don’t want an anti-hunter to serve on my state’s wildlife advisory commission, no matter by how many votes he is outnumbered.
Mr. Lamp is active in AnnapolisForAnimals.org and works very closely with the Humane Society of the United States. I know this because he put it on his Web page (http://ola3.aacc.edu/ejlamp/). On that page, E. Joe Ph.D. calls himself a nonhunter, which is technically true. However, there are many nonhunters who don’t mind at all if other people hunt. Lamp is not one of them.
In the event you do not already know it, the Humane Society of the United States is the lead organization trying to outlaw hunting.
If you call up AnnapolisForAnimals.com you will see a page titled “Maryland Votes For Animals,” and a mission statement that reads “Maryland Votes for Animals is an organization with one overriding mission: To create an ever-growing voting bloc of animal advocates who will elect representatives willing to champion and vote for animal protection legislation, and to hold politicians accountable to their constituents.”
You will find some blogs by E. Joe Ph.D., including one in which he hopes that birth control for deer may put an end to hunting.
If anybody owns a bridge in Brooklyn, you may have found a buyer.
I believe that our state’s official wildlife staff and appointees have taken the stance with E. Joe Ph.D. that it is good to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I have been told by staffers that it is better to have him near, where they can hear his rants and have a sense of what the opposition is thinking. To be fair, I have been told as well that E. Joe Ph.D. has gone to bat for the wildlife agency when it comes to funding.
Contact Outdoor Editor Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
