In split vote, Game and Fish commissioners decide to allow hunters over age 18 to earn certificates solely through online coursework — an option already available via out-of-state classes.

by Mike KoshmrlJanuary 21, 2026

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Fremont County resident and hunter safety instructor Joan Eisemann wants Wyoming to keep requiring in-person coursework for novice hunters as a matter of public safety. 

Some of her adult students have never handled a gun before, she said.  

“I cannot stress enough the safety factor,” Eisemann told the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission at a Jan. 13 meeting. “Safety first.” 

Eisemann was joined by a handful of instructors and hunting advocates who all urged commissioners to keep the in-person requirement in the state agency’s policy. They espoused benefits such as real-life firearm handling, simulations like crossing fences with guns and students getting facetime with wardens to go over Wyoming’s regulations. 

Ultimately, however, commissioners opted to modernize and go a direction that the majority of states already have. 

“We accept hunter safety certifications from other states, and now 33 states have an online-only version,” Game and Fish Commissioner Rusty Bell said. 

That puts Wyoming wildlife officials in a bit of a bind. Even if they retained an in-person requirement, state-to-state reciprocity would enable Wyoming’s adult-onset hunters to enroll in online hunter safety courses offered by other states. And about 100 residents did just that in 2025, taking classes offered by Idaho and Nebraska, according to Game and Fish personnel. 

“That’s the hard part,” Game and Fish Communications Chief Roy Weber told WyoFile. “So we may as well offer a course that we feel is beneficial and covers the stuff we want to cover here in the state of Wyoming.” 

The specifics of Wyoming’s online-only hunter safety curriculum have not been decided. But, likely, the course will not include human instructors presenting remotely, he said. 

“More than likely, it would be online modules that you would take with quizzes,” Weber said. “That could change.” 

The exclusively online course should be available by early 2027. It will only be available to hunters over 18, which means that about two-thirds of Wyoming hunter safety students won’t be eligible.

Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce spoke in support of the policy change. 

“The research shows that … there isn’t a difference between the virtual or in-person [courses] with test scores,” Bruce told commissioners.

But some longtime hunter safety instructors worry that important lessons will be lost in the online-only format. Alan Brumsted was among those to testify against the policy change, and the Lander resident said he knows from experience that if a workaround is available to students, they’ll take it. 

“I guess I see the worst in people, because I was a teacher,” Brumsted told WyoFile. “How can a student get around what they have to do? What’s a shortcut?” 

Brumsted’s concern is that online test-takers will mindlessly scroll through required tutorials and then pass a test easily. Many of the questions have intuitive answers, he said.

“I worry about the integrity of the test,” Brumsted said. “And I worry about the fact that there’s just no accountability. There’s no in-person time for somebody to ask a question.” 

The Game and Fish Commission OK’d the new online-only option for hunter safety certificates in a 4-2 vote, with Commissioners Ken Roberts and John Masterson opposed. 

“I listen to the people who teach hunter education,” Masterson said, “and I cannot help but give them a great deal of deference.”

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Roberts shared a similar rationale: “If the educators are saying we need to have [in-person courses] to make it a better program,” he said, “to me, we need to have it to make it a better program.” 

State wildlife management agencies have been requiring hunter safety certificates as a prerequisite for holding hunting licenses since the 1950s. The requirements were spurred by concerns over hunting-related injuries and fatalities.

by Maggie ReynoldsJanuary 22, 2026

• https://spotlightdelaware.org/2026/01/22/bipartisan-bill-seeks-to-enshrine-hunters-rights-in-state-constitution/

With the introduction of a bill that would codify the rights of hunters and fishers in the state constitution, lawmakers aim to protect the state’s hunting and fishing culture. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE GRAPHIC BY ELSA KEGELMAN

Why Should Delaware Care?
Hunting, fishing and trapping advocates in Delaware say they are concerned by a decrease in the popularity and culture of their sports in the state. With the introduction of a bill that would codify the rights of hunters and fishers in the state constitution, lawmakers aim to protect that hunting and fishing culture.  

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers has introduced a bill that would amend the state constitution to explicitly include Delawareans’ right to hunt, trap and fish.

What those constitutional rights would mean for hunters in practice, however, remains unclear.

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The proposed legislation, Senate Bill 212, does not spell out any specific rights for hunters, fishers and trappers, but rather simply acknowledges that these activities are a part of Delaware’s “valued, natural heritage,” and that they contribute to the management of wildlife in the state, House Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton), a co-sponsor of the bill, told Spotlight Delaware. 

The bill’s primary sponsor, State Sen. Dave Wilson (R-Lincoln), said he is concerned that animal rights groups or gun control advocates could come to the legislature in the future and try to outlaw or further regulate hunting, so he wants to enshrine it as a right in the state constitution. 

“All I’m looking at is, guaranteed, the right for future generations to do something that for the last 250 years we’ve been able to do and nobody ever questioned it,” Wilson said. 

Wilson and Spiegelman both said that they do not agree with the recent passage of more strict gun control legislation in Delaware, like the enactment of permit to purchase this past November, but they see this codification of hunters’ rights as a separate issue from firearm laws. 

Twenty one other states have similar provisions in their state constitutions preserving the right to hunt, fish and trap wildlife. None of Delaware’s East Coast neighbors have the right to hunt and fish constitutionally protected, though Vermont was the first state to adopt such a statute in 1777. 

Because it is a proposed constitutional amendment rather than a standard law, the bill would require a two-thirds majority vote by both the current General Assembly and next year’s General Assembly. 

The last time the Delaware state constitution was amended was in 2023, when the General Assembly passed amendments to adjust the legislature’s Division of Research, require legislators to live in the districts they represent for their entire term of office and require the last day of the General Assembly’s regular session to end by 5 p.m. June 30.

While Wilson acknowledged that accumulating the two-thirds majority necessary to approve the amendment could be a challenge, the bill already appears to have bipartisan support in the form of co-sponsors William Carson (D-Smyrna) and Alonna Berry (D-Milton). 

Reps. Carson and Berry did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment. 

Wilson said he and his colleagues had considered a hunters’ and fishers’ rights amendment in the past, but the proposed legislation did not have the support of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), the state agency that issues hunting and trapping licenses.  

This time around, however, Wilson said he went to DNREC first to ensure that they were comfortable with the bill, before bringing it to the legislature. 

Michael Globetti, a spokesperson for DNREC, said his department was  “appreciative” of the chance to work with Wilson on his proposed amendment. 

“We worked with the Senator on language in his proposal that makes clear that reasonable laws and regulations will continue to guide these activities in Delaware,” Globetti wrote in a message to Spotlight Delaware. 

The bill states that if the amendment were adopted, it would still be up to DNREC and other state agencies to determine the application of property rights, water use laws, and the suspension or revocation of any individuals’ hunting, fishing, or trapping licenses.  

A wildlife focus

While Wilson and Speigelman said the principal goal of the amendment is to keep hunters’, fishers’, and trappers’ rights protected from any future legal challenges, they also want it to recognize how hunting helps maintain the state’s wildlife. 

Spiegelman said the fact that the annual license fees hunters and fishers pay to DNREC are used to fund wildlife conservation and habitat restoration is evidence of hunters’ and fishers’ positive impact on the natural environment.  

He also noted the federal Pittman-Robertson Act, passed in 1937, which began the process of funding wildlife conservation through taxes on firearms, ammunition and other hunting gear. 

Spiegelman said he believes that if hunting and fishing is not encouraged in Delaware through measures like the proposed constitutional amendment, the number of licenses the state sells will continue to decrease each year, making it harder for the state to maintain wildlife areas. 

DNREC issued 15,400 licenses in 2024, according to the most recent numbers published by the agency. That is the lowest number of licenses sold in decades, as the total number of hunters in Delaware peaked at about 30,000 in 1975, and has steadily dropped since then. 

Jeff Hague, president of the Delaware State Sportsmens’ Association, said his group is “totally in support” of the bill, and that he appreciates how it acknowledges hunters’ responsibility to be good stewards of the state’s natural resources. 

Hague said he thinks people have often done more harm to animals by cutting down forests to build housing developments and using chemicals on wildlife than hunters do by naturally managing the animal population. 

“We believe in the proper management of all the game, fish and wildlife in the state of Delaware, so that we can make sure that these resources are available for the future,” Hague added. 

Wilson said he takes issue with the recent passage of more strict firearm laws in Delaware, such as House Bill 451 requiring hunters aged 18 to 20 be supervised by someone age 21+, which was later struck down by a Superior Court judge, and Senate Bill 2, requiring individuals to obtain a permit to purchase a firearm. 

At the same time, though, Wilson said he views the proposed amendment as a separate issue from the firearm legislation, and a more direct way to preserve the state’s hunting culture. 

“It’s not really changing anything other than guaranteeing that the future of our youth and residents of Delaware will always be afforded the right to fish, hunt and trap,” he said.

Wilson filed the bill on Dec. 18, 2025. Because it has not yet been heard in committee, he said he does not expect any movement until mid-March, since February and early March will be taken up by Joint Finance Committee hearings.

‘I ran the few meters to him and looked into his blue eyes that were filled with absolute terror,’ the dog’s owner, Sean Boxall, recalled

By 

Kimberlee Speakman

Published on January 20, 2026 04:27PM EST

3Comments

NEED TO KNOW

• Sean Boxall says his 2-year-old Siberian husky died after accidentally stepping in a trap alongside a road in British Columbia
• The B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks said it investigated the incident and determined that “no offense had occurred” as the trap was licensed and placed in a legal area with signage
• As a result, Boxall and his partner have created “Moon’s Law”, a proposal for harsher regulations when it comes to traps

A 2-year-old Siberian husky is dead after taking a wrong step on a roadway in British Columbia, Canada.

Sean Boxall, the owner of the dog named Moon, told CTV News and the Calgary Herald that he had driven up Horsethief Creek Forest Service Road, which is located over 170 miles away from Calgary, and got out of his truck to explore an unplowed section of a trail — when the unthinkable happened.

As he walked a short distance from his truck, he noticed “a trapline sign partially obscured by overhanging branches,” which warned of traps in the area. He then called for his dog, who had been walking around un-leashed by his truck, to “come,” and tried to run to grab him, but by then it was too late.

“I saw the trap clamp down directly on his neck, he let out an instant yelp and started to frantically try to free himself,” Boxall recalled to the Herald. “I ran the few meters to him and looked into his blue eyes that were filled with absolute terror.”

Boxall said his beloved pet had “triggered a freshly baited Conibear trap” along one of the road’s banks, per CTV News. He said he attempted to use his hands to free the dog to no avail, but the effort left his hands torn and bloody, and he was only able to free Moon with a chainsaw, which was used to cut through the trap.

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The dog owner said he performed CPR on the animal, but the canine eventually succumbed to his injuries and died. Boxall told CTV News that Moon “suffered an atrocious and agonizing death.”

The B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks told PEOPLE in a statement that they received a complaint regarding a local resident’s dog that “was killed after being caught in a trap on Crown land west of Radium, B.C.” 

Conservation officers investigated the incident and interviewed the dog owner and trapper and determined that the “trapper was properly licensed, the trapline and area it was placed was legal, and the related trapping season was open.” Officials also told PEOPLE that “warning signage had also been placed in the area” and therefore, “no offense had occurred and enforcement action will not be pursued.”

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“The B.C. Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) sends its sympathies to the owner for the loss of their pet,” the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks said. “People are encouraged to be aware that there are active trapping seasons throughout the winter in various areas of B.C.”

Boxall told CTV News and the Herald that, in light of the incident, he and his partner, Nicole Trigg, created “Moon’s Law,” a proposal for harsher regulations when it comes to traps, including requiring that the traps be moved away from roadways and that they be made easier to open.

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“If you’re driving because you want to get into nature and the winter wonderland in the safety of your car, and you stopped to let your dog out to pee, then this could potentially happen to [you],” Trigg told CTV News.

“The general public should be able to travel freely and safely on our public lands without the possibility of their family and pets being tortured to death in front of them,” added Boxall.

To learn more about Moon’s Law, visit the effort’s Facebook page.