SPRINGFIELD — After weeks following Rep Daniel Didech (D-IL)’s bobcat hunting ban proposed in February, The Chicago Genius Herald’s investigative reporting team has made a shocking political discovery: Didech himself is a tailless mammal, much like the bobcats he is so keen to protect in this bill.
Illinois has a fractious history with its feline inhabitants, allowing the hunting of bobcats since 2016 even though they were ‘threatened species’ as recently as 1999. Unlike Illinoisans’ other game hunting pursuits where more of the entire animal is eventually used for meat, we largely hunt bobcats solely for their pelts, which make a beautiful, luxuriously warm lining for winter garments.
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Didech, whose own pelt strongly resembles the tan to grayish-brown color of many local bobcats, proposed House Bill 1827 to curb what he sees as an inhumane practice. In advance of The Genius Herald report, we asked him a few tough questions to determine where his loyalty really lies.
“The trapping of these animals is usually done by really cruel methods—steel leghold traps followed by clubbing or strangling,” Didech said over Zoom while sitting, cat-like, on a chair. “They may not be endangered [sic] anymore, but no animal should have to go through that agony to be used as a trophy or a hat.”
Didech exaggerated the plight of these walking Ushanka hats several other times during the interview before he excused himself for a lunch break. When pressed on the contents of that lunch, Didech mentioned that he had ordered sushi, which overwhelmingly features raw fish as an ingredient. Bobcats are also opportunistic predators who often prey on Illinois’ fish population.
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Our report also found that the other state representatives who co-sponsored the bill have a variety of suspicious connections to the bobcat community themselves, including a unanimous early-childhood affinity for milk. In addition, many of the representatives involved have 1–6 children, a litter size identical to that of the Midwestern bobcat.
It’s still too early to say what effect these revelations will have on HB 1827 or indeed the careers of these bobcat-politicians hiding in plain sight. The Genius Herald urges Illinoisans concerned about elected officials using natural camouflage or sound-dampened padded feet to call their local animal control hotline immediately.
