In a series of letters to editors across the state, and in a deceptive radio ad, Citizens to Preserve North Dakota Property Rights is attacking a petition drive for an initiated measure sponsored by North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase, a measure that would end canned "hunting" in North Dakota.

The people behind the radio ad and letters are canned hunt operators. The alleged "right" these citizens want to protect is to pen deer and elk in an escape-proof pasture and then sell the captive animals to sham hunters for fraudulent hunts the animals can't escape.

The deceptive radio ad paid for by the canned hunt operators mentions the Fair Chase initiative and then launches an attack on radical East Coast animal rights Groups.

Why the deception and diversion?

Canned hunt operators don't want voters to know what they do behind their fences. They hypocritically assert a right in an ad clearly aimed at denying North Dakotans their right to vote on the Fair Chase measure.

The deceptive radio ad and the equally deceptive string of letters, assert that the Fair Chase initiative is an incremental step toward banning all hunting. That is baloney. Canned hunt operations sell bucks for dollars, commercialization of game that Theodore Roosevelt outlawed as a first step toward saving our wildlife.

Members of the North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase Committee, hunters, land-owners and a variety of occupations, are dedicated to preserving our hunting heritage, a heritage based on the fair chase of wild game. We oppose sham hunts behind the fence and the corrupt image of hunting this practice presents to the general population.

Canned hunt operators don't believe in or practice fair chase. Their high fences prove that. Their ad and letters make clear that they don't trust the people of North Dakota to make an informed decision on whether we want these operations in this state.

To be accurate, Citizens to Preserve North Dakota Property Rights ought to call themselves Citizens to Preserve Canned Hunting.

(Kaseman is chairman of North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase. - Editor)