Penn’s Outdoors

The DailyLocal.com out of southeastern PA has posted a letter by an individual opposed to hunting in East Goshen township.  The letter and the comments by others provide a disturbing look at how some people view deer hunters and deer hunting in this State. 

According to East Goshen’s Board of Supervisors, the 10-year recreational deer hunt will happen per the Pennsylvania Game Commission hunting schedule: Sept. 20 to Jan. 24, six days a week, on our public property and open spaces.  Bow and crossbow hunters will build their tree stands and are permitted to hunt from half an hour before sunrise until dusk. Your family’s access to these open spaces will be severely limited and so might the use of your backyard.

This is the first and last time, I even remotely understand the writer’s point. I do think there is a tension in the fall between landowners and hunters in suburban areas.  Though, I would offer to this person that archers pose relatively minimal risk to individuals who are in their own backyard.  The need in archery season to get close to a deer before a shot helps to significantly minimize this risk. 

Statistics show that bow hunters injure rather than kill at least 50 percent of the time, so watch out for panicked, bloody deer fleeing onto your property, past your children, into your sliders, onto roads and into your cars.

Citation please.   In fact, every archer should become familiar with this citation which provides evidence that archers success rates are much better than 50%.

Kilpatrick, H. J. and W. D. Walter. 1999. A controlled archery deer hunt in a residential community: cost, effectiveness, and deer recovery rates. Wildlife Society Bulletin 27:115-123

It found evidence to support the theory that hunters had better recovery  in residential areas because of less opportunity for a wounded deer to get away from the hunter.  There was also no evidence to suggest that archery hunting sent deer “fleeing” onto people’s property, past children, into slider and onto roads into your cars.  Don’t throw out stats unless you are prepared to back them up.

If a wounded deer is on your property, the hunter has a legal right to come onto your property to kill and remove the deer. Be prepared to have your children and grandchildren witness this horror, perhaps needing therapy to help them over this ordeal.

As a professional social worker, this has given me a great idea to start doing therapy for children who have experienced the “horror” of seeing a hunter harvest a deer.  What????  Therapy for children???? I have to wonder out loud if this person writes letters to the editor about violence on television, video games, and movies, which are desensitizing millions of children to the killing of humans!  I dare this person or any other person to prove that there have been 5 children in the last 50 years who have needed therapy for witnessing a deer being killed.  Just 5.  Bet you can’t.

If you think that all of the above will not affect your property values, think again. In Pennsylvania, we must disclose hunting to prospective buyers. Do you think families will want to buy a house where a backyard use can be jeopardized by hunters and dead or wounded deer? Do you think that might limit the numbers of buyers willing to make an offer?

This is a new one for me.  As a bow hunter, I would love for some of these property values to go down so that I can afford to buy one of them to give me access to hunting these areas.  Seriously, I have found no evidence of this. 

We should not let our supervisors push us around when it comes to our safety and rights! Were they not elected to represent us, the taxpayers, not the hunters?

No peace for East Goshen.

So that’s the letter but now let’s take a look at some of the comments, which are equally scary.

Great letter! The supervisors are not representing the majority of homeowners who oppose this hunt. Non-lethal methods need to be pursued.

The thought of using non-lethal methods continues to grow in popularity.  Non-lethal methods have the potential to  successfully eradicate deer from many parts of the State.  What a sad day for Pennsylvania when whitetail deer don’t exist.  Don’t think it couldn’t happen.  Check out this next comment from someone who supports the hunting.

I am not a hunter, but have invited many a hunter onto my property to rid me of the vermin known as Bambi.

For way too many Pennsylvanians, Bambi has become no better than a New York City subway rat.  I have never ever heard a hunter call a deer a vermin.  What do you do with vermin?  You try to exterminate them by any means possible.  My fellow hunters, please understand this is about far more than our hunting rights. It is about defending one of the most majestic animals in Penn’s Outdoors from those who want to destroy them.