New Jersey lawmakers are weighing two resolutions, Senate Concurrent Resolution 37 (SCR 37) and Assembly Concurrent Resolution 16 (ACR 16), that would make hunting, fishing, and trapping constitutional rights in the Garden State. The New Jersey Senate and General Assembly can stop them now, before the question ever lands on the ballot.

A state constitution exists to protect people’s most basic freedoms. Locking the killing of wild animals into it would make it much harder to pass new protections for white-tailed deer, fish, and other wildlife down the road.

According to In Defense of Animals, the proposals would guarantee ongoing chances to pursue species that hunters, trappers, and anglers have long targeted, including through “traditional means and methods.” They would also treat killing as the go-to way of managing animals labeled invasive or overpopulated.

The amendment would not erase every existing protection overnight. The bigger worry is what comes next. Once in the constitution, it could be used to fight future limits on trapping or to block humane, non-lethal ways of resolving conflicts between people and wildlife. How far that goes would depend on how courts interpret the amendment.

Hunting and fishing rules can already be set through ordinary laws that adapt over time, written by legislators who answer to voters. That flexibility is worth keeping, no matter where someone stands on hunting.

Neither resolution has been adopted yet, so there is still time for lawmakers to vote no.

Sign the petition to urge New Jersey’s state senators and assemblymembers to reject SCR 37 and ACR 16 before this proposal heads to voters.