Press release from USO

Funter

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UNITED STATES OUTFITTERS, INC. Are you ready for a Great Year? 2005 is looking to be an awesome year for a lot ofyou...the reason? Due to your lawsuit you no longer have to face the discrimination of being a nonresident hunter in some States.

First, the good news! Arizona nonresident quotas have been abolished. Arizona is now attempting to make changes to discourage nonresidents from applying, such as discontinuing their internet applications, raising tag fees, requiring full tag fees sent when applying and/or requiring you to purchase the nonresident license to apply. Any of these things will surely reduce the number of nonresidents applying, but should not affect your portfolios as usa fronts your tag fees and does the applications for you. A few of you who have not bought bonus points in the past may of course be forced to do so. However, you should buy bonus points now that you are on equal footing with the residents for drawing a tag. In fact, this is an opportunity to increase your applications to all four species in Arizona. This way you get four bonus points for the price of one.

Nevada nonresident quotas are also gone. They are also looking for changes to discourage nonresidents from applying and we will follow their development. Any attempt to reinstitute quotas will be met with further litigation.

As a side note, Montana and the other Ninth circuit states have not made changes to stop the discrimination of nonresidents and are opening themselves up to litigation as well as large damage claims. The longer they wait, the costlier the claims will be. If any of you want to be a litigant on these claims, please advise us and we will put you in contact with our legal team.

We are still waiting on the Tenth Circuit Court in Denver to rule on our case (Shutz vs Wyoming) presented to the court last March. This is a similar type case that was won in the Ninth Circuit (Montoya v Manning) and has laid the groundwork to stop nonresident discrimination.

Now the bad news! Even though the courts have rightfully ruled to stop the discrimination against nonresidents, the Game and Fish Departments are trying to go around the courts and attempt to pass legislation in the U. S. Congress to exempt wildlife issues from the commerce clause. This would mean that states could exclude you from hunting and fishing in any State completely. It shows how misguided and determined these Game and Fish Agencies are at discriminating against you. We will still need your help in fighting this through your donations and contacting your congressman. Enclosed are excerpts from an article published in "The Conservation Force January Bulletin" written by John Jackson.

To fight this legislation and continue with the efforts in your behalf, we are asking for a donation to the Nonresident Legal Fund of$100 from each of our applicants. As you have seen, no one but YOU, usa, Conservation Force, Dallas Safari Club, and African Safari Club have had the guts to try and stop the discrimination against you, the nonresident hunter. No other licensing service, hunting consultants, or outfitters have stood up to be financially counted in this effort. In the past you have seen what a small amount of donation from each of you has produced.. ... RESULTS LET'S NOT STOP NOW!

ForUnitedStatesOutfittersandProfessionalLicensingS ervice,2004was a banner year. Along with your winning of the Arizona Lawsuit, we had good moisture and a cool fall, all the ingredients for many trophies being harvested by our clients. We had 400+ point elk and 200+ point whitetail harvested along with hundreds of other trophies including sheep, moose, antelope, bears, oryx, mountain goats, and mule deer. No other outfitter can produce the quality for the price that usa provides. We are very proud of this, but we are appreciative of you, our clients, because of your trust in USO.

For 2005, changes will abound. Arizona and Nevada are dealing with having to treat resident and nonresidents alike, more litigation may be needed if discrimination is reinstated. New Mexico changes include moving up their main deadline to April 9th, looking at starting a bonus point system, point restriction in some areas, allowing guides for Oryx hunts and allowing crossbows for mobility impaired archers. New Mexico deadline for Oryx is Feb. 5th,for those of you that missed out last year need to get Oryx added to your portfolio. Any of you wanting private land elk hunts with guaranteed tags for 2005 should contact our office for availability.

Kansas, once again, has boundary changes for both draw tags and landowner tags. Those of you wanting Kansas landowner tags need to call to get a tag held for you in 2005. We are booking these hunts this year rather than just a waiting list as the demand greatly exceeds the amount of tags we receive.

Other states are increasing some of their license, tag and application fees. Several states have yet to formalize these changes, so we will keep you informed through our "SCREAMERS" on changes that affect your current applications and opportunities for new applications.

Price changes are in the works for our hunts also, but only for the Licensing Hunts for this year. Mainly because of the cost of fuel, we have increased the cost of these hunts from $200 to $300. usa is still fronting your tag fees for Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Kansas. As in the past, we will continue to provide only guided hunts in these States, also included in the guided hunts are the Wyoming elk hunts. If your financial status has changed where you cannot afford to go guided, we need to remove or place your portfolio on hold. In States such as Montana, Idaho, Alaska, Oregon, Washington and California, we apply for unguided hunts for sheep, moose, and goats.

Please look at your portfolios now, as we are contracted to apply these applications for you each year and our first deadlines are Utah and Wyoming which is the end of January. If you believe you cannot hunt this year, for any reason, let us know before we start'applying. We can apply for "bonus only" or "hold" in order to fit your need otherwise we will apply to draw. It is foolish to apply and draw a special and valuable tag you cannot use simply because you forgot to notify us of your needs. To add insult to injury, you are still responsible to pay for the tag and it will be wasted as no one else can use this tag. So, review your portfolio and mail or fax your invoice back to us. If you have any questions or changes, notify us so we can do the best job for you.

Because of the legal changes that are coming about, you are in front of the line for many ofthese quality tags in the coming years. Thanks again for allowing usa to handle your applications. As always, your support, trust, and your business are greatly appreciated. 1-800-845-9929 . Off: 505-758-9774 . Fax: 505-758-1744****
 
thanks for the update.
I guess from reading this, that if the states were to eliminate land owner tags. Then, USO would have to change their wording from tags we have, to tags we might get.
I also like the fact that they are true sportsman by showing that they have a lot of money to pay for all the tags fees upfront for their clients! No this is not about the almighty buck!

USO still sucks in my book!
 
It's interesting that there is no mention of buying a license before applying in Arizona. I wonder if that escaped their notice? Probably not, but it will be interesting to see if that is any kind of deterrent.

:cool:
 
It looks like the press release was written in January, before our changes here in AZ became public. You know, money donated and spent for their cause are one thing, bodies showing up at public meetings and elsewhere are an entirely different matter. Let's all watch for the USO list of clients to be made public. A grass-roots effort to contact them might be beneficial. Someone mentioned landowner tags and how USO might have to change "plans to hunt" in a state to "maybe hunt in a state". If you needed any convincing on the dangers of landowner tags here in AZ, this should satisfy you.

JMHO
 
Danr..it does mention buying a 'nonresident license to apply' in the second paragraph.

Interesting press release; legal extortions, price increases, solicitations for donations...heck, sign me up....all b.s.!!

Good luck with these money grubbing eliist catering pr**ks.
 
Noharleyet, I couldn't have said it better myself. It is better to know your enemy and his capabilities, and respond accordingly, than to bury one's head in the sand and hope the authorities will look after our interests. JMHO
 
These people could care less about non-resident rights. Their credo is simple. Bludgeon your opponents with money and litigation (really the same thing.)
 
I agree with both Nummie and noharley.I will ask my wife what it takes to get USO's list.It might be as simple as submitting a request for public record.
 
I just wanted to state for the record that USO still sucks and I won't be updating my portfollio any time soon.
Imagine having that kind of money to send someone else a portfollio of the big game animals you require to hunt this year!
I hope after spending 38 years in AZ that they never issue land owner tags like some of their neighboring states do.
Thanks for any info on their clients funter.
If your wife can't do it then maybe thru the FOIA we can. I wonder if the meat processors buy the list of successful applicants from AZ G&F every year to send out their solicitations?
 
The only way to get the info would be to get a list of all the non rees hunters.It would be all of then not just his list.
 
Mntman, and anybody else who takes the time to read this string, when a call to action is announced, PLEASE take a few minutes to write your Legislator, Congressman, whoever. You have no idea how important this is!!!!
 

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