Re: Sunday Hunting letters/email
Thomas Stock (TSTOCK@FMSHRC.GOV)
Tue, 02 Mar 1999 10:43:55 -0500
Gail Mackiernan wrote:
>>>[snip] None of our local TU chapter dares to go fishing in certain
state parks during deer season; at least one member was fired on (by
a rifle, in a shotgun-only zone!) while walking from the parking lot to
the stream. Luckily he was unhurt; the "hunter" ran off when the
fisherman yelled. >>>
I oppose Sunday hunting on public lands (and would ban it on
Saturdays, too) because of an experience like this I once had.
It was when I first started birding back in 1969. I was walking
along Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia (very wild back then),
or should I say skulking as birders in woods are wont to do. I had
crept up to a big log and was watching a Red-bellied Woodpecker
when suddenly the air around me was filled with buckshot and
the roar of a gun going off. The shot must have gone just over my
head - it made a noise like popping corn as it hit the foliage around
me. I yelled - and heard the hunter racing off through the woods!
Now, the twist to my story was that this happened on PRIVATE land
that was posted (it belonged to the Archdiocese of Richmond - and
may still). Which leads me to two observations: 1) Even stringent
restrictions may fail to dampen the ardour of some hunters (or
poachers, as I prefer to call those of the ilk that shot at me), so
ever since, I often tread as if in bear country during hunting season.
2) Does the Sunday hunting ban extend to private lands? I'd be
curious to know - and frankly surprised if it did. If not, then what's
all the fuss? If hunters want to hunt on Sundays, let them do it on
their own bloody land! Sure, folks may have to pay fees to hunt
clubs and such. But better that than hunters monopolizing public
lands.
Tom Stock
Silver Spring
Silver Spring, MD