By Amber [email protected]

The Humane Society of the United States and its international branch, Humane Society International, recently responded to the Sacramento State hunting controversy in a letter sent to Roberta Achtenberg, chair of California State University’s Board of Trustees. The letter called for Sacramento State to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and also requested the university make a public announcement including a full account of the animals killed by the hunters on behalf of Sac State, including the killing methods. According to their website, www.hsus.org, the HSUS wanted the university to provide a grant to an animal protection organization in Tanzania as compensation for the hunted animals. In addition to such requests, the society also asked that the university help increase communication with other universities and museum communities throughout the U.S. to promote the ethical issues concerning efforts to kill animals for usage as museum specimens.Achtenberg’s response letter, addressed to Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the HSUS, was written on September 25, 2007. Her letter neither supported nor rejected the HSUS requests, but stated that this experience has been an “opportunity” for its campuses and others to discuss developing collection policies for specimens and artifacts.However, as earlier reported in the Hornet, the Department of Biological Sciences has had solid policy guidelines and was already in the process of revising their animal collection policy prior to Achtenberg’s letter. The letters between Achtenberg and the HSUS stemmed from concerns over President Alexander Gonzalez’ request for permission from the Tanzanian government to allow local couple, Paul and Renee Snider to obtain special hunting permits legalizing the hunting of animals not covered under the standard Tanzanian license.In 2004, university president Alexander Gonzalez signed a letter supporting the hunting of numerous Tanzanian animals which would have gone to complete an African animal collection for a proposed major wildlife museum in 2004. Using Gonzalez’s letter as authorization, the Sniders traveled to Tanzania twice with the purpose of hunting red-listed African animals to complete their collection.The hunters intended to donate $2.4 million dollars to Sac State to help fund a Natural-Science Museum, featuring a natural history component where the Sniders could display their collection of African animals. “The university never intended to include any at-risk species in any collection, and none were taken,” Achtenberg wrote Pacelle.This summer, Gonzalez abandoned the museum idea due to faculty and community criticism.

Amber Kantner can be reached at [email protected]