Wednesday, January 24, 2007
SUNDAY HUNTING IS DANGEROUS
About 15 years ago, while still working for The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginia’s state newspaper, I pulled the boo-boo of my career.
What I did was suggest in a column that the time had come for Virginians to consider – not necessarily enact, just consider – hunting on Sunday.
You’d have thought I called Robert E. Lee a coward and a child molester.
Never in my 33 years in that gentle profession have I been the object of more hate mail, scatological phone calls and shouting contests on the street. It was suggested that I be tarred and feathered – or maybe it was drawn and quartered. The crowd that came looking for me bore a disturbing resemblance to the howling mob with torches and pitchforks that chased the Frankenstein monster up the mountain in the old movie.
Though some 40 states already allowed all-weekend hunting, suffice it to say that Virginians back then hated the idea the way the Devil hates holy water. I had to hide in the Blue Ridge Range, live in a brush arbor and survive on huckleberries until the shouting stopped down below.
Well, things change in 15 years. Sometimes they change quite a bit.
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (usually called the Virginia Game Department) has just released a 5,000-participant survey that shows a startling change of heart.
The game department did a similar survey 10 years ago (five years after they let me run interference for them, the finks). This latest survey, completed in 2006 with a 60 percent return ratio, showed that 62 percent of hunters now approve of Sunday hunting, compared to only 45 percent who wanted it in 1996.
There are several reasons for the shift of sentiment, which, by the way, is large and strong enough to propel any of the several presidential contenders into the White House.
Deer numbers have grown so large they’re now a nuisance in many areas. (One jumped in front of my truck and darn near demolished it a couple of months ago.) There’s a strong and widespread feeling that there are way too many deer these days, and that a full weekend of hunting would be an excellent way to reduce the herd to manageable levels.
Hunting license sales are dropping faster than President Bush’s approval rating. The National Rifle Association says that "hunting is losing ground." For every 100 hunters who quit – mostly because of age – only 69 new hunters replace them. Advocates of Sunday hunting believe an extra day of hunting each week when season is open would give license sales – and thus conservation funds – a much-need boost. And with people working longer hours, weekends are in truth about the only time the average person has to go hunting.
(By contrast, fishing license sales are stable or even increasing slightly across much of the country.)
But detractors to Sunday hunting abound in the Bible Belt, even if most of the country has embraced Sunday hunting for a long time.
Farmers and church-goers don’t like Sunday hunting. They want to continue to have a day of rest and quiet. Hikers and bird-watchers aren’t willing to give up their one day of the week that is now free of gunfire.
The Virginia Game Department does not have the authority to make a legal decision on Sunday hunting. That is the responsibility of the Virginia General Assembly, which is presently in session in Richmond and which has a couple of Sunday-hunting bills before it.
Traditions die hard. The game department survey showed that if you’re under 30, then 76 percent of you supported Sunday hunting. If on the other hand you’re past 60, support drops to just 41 percent.
And where do I stand on such a contentious issue after all this time?
I’ll never tell. It’s too cold this time of year to hunker down in a brush arbor. And huckleberries are gone for another season.
END
What I did was suggest in a column that the time had come for Virginians to consider – not necessarily enact, just consider – hunting on Sunday.
You’d have thought I called Robert E. Lee a coward and a child molester.
Never in my 33 years in that gentle profession have I been the object of more hate mail, scatological phone calls and shouting contests on the street. It was suggested that I be tarred and feathered – or maybe it was drawn and quartered. The crowd that came looking for me bore a disturbing resemblance to the howling mob with torches and pitchforks that chased the Frankenstein monster up the mountain in the old movie.
Though some 40 states already allowed all-weekend hunting, suffice it to say that Virginians back then hated the idea the way the Devil hates holy water. I had to hide in the Blue Ridge Range, live in a brush arbor and survive on huckleberries until the shouting stopped down below.
Well, things change in 15 years. Sometimes they change quite a bit.
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (usually called the Virginia Game Department) has just released a 5,000-participant survey that shows a startling change of heart.
The game department did a similar survey 10 years ago (five years after they let me run interference for them, the finks). This latest survey, completed in 2006 with a 60 percent return ratio, showed that 62 percent of hunters now approve of Sunday hunting, compared to only 45 percent who wanted it in 1996.
There are several reasons for the shift of sentiment, which, by the way, is large and strong enough to propel any of the several presidential contenders into the White House.
Deer numbers have grown so large they’re now a nuisance in many areas. (One jumped in front of my truck and darn near demolished it a couple of months ago.) There’s a strong and widespread feeling that there are way too many deer these days, and that a full weekend of hunting would be an excellent way to reduce the herd to manageable levels.
Hunting license sales are dropping faster than President Bush’s approval rating. The National Rifle Association says that "hunting is losing ground." For every 100 hunters who quit – mostly because of age – only 69 new hunters replace them. Advocates of Sunday hunting believe an extra day of hunting each week when season is open would give license sales – and thus conservation funds – a much-need boost. And with people working longer hours, weekends are in truth about the only time the average person has to go hunting.
(By contrast, fishing license sales are stable or even increasing slightly across much of the country.)
But detractors to Sunday hunting abound in the Bible Belt, even if most of the country has embraced Sunday hunting for a long time.
Farmers and church-goers don’t like Sunday hunting. They want to continue to have a day of rest and quiet. Hikers and bird-watchers aren’t willing to give up their one day of the week that is now free of gunfire.
The Virginia Game Department does not have the authority to make a legal decision on Sunday hunting. That is the responsibility of the Virginia General Assembly, which is presently in session in Richmond and which has a couple of Sunday-hunting bills before it.
Traditions die hard. The game department survey showed that if you’re under 30, then 76 percent of you supported Sunday hunting. If on the other hand you’re past 60, support drops to just 41 percent.
And where do I stand on such a contentious issue after all this time?
I’ll never tell. It’s too cold this time of year to hunker down in a brush arbor. And huckleberries are gone for another season.
END
