Sunday Hunting - Committee to Abolish Sports Hunting - Letters to the Editor - hunting, sport hunting, sports hunting, C.A.S.H., CASH, wildlife, wildlife management, DNR, DEC, DEP, animals, animal rights, anti-hunting, ecology, environment, biodiversity, deer, whitet

Sunday Hunting

To The Editor:

Representative John Atkins has sponsored a dangerous bill - HB 160. If passed into law, this bill would allow landowners to give permission to hunters to kill animals on their property on Sunday afternoons. We urge anyone with an interest in the outdoors, and human and animal safety to contact their elected representatives and urge them to vote "no" on HB 160.

On Sundays during the autumn months, families can enjoy safe outings to wooded parks, sometimes with Rover, without the threat of armed individuals lurking nearby. Many Delaware residents ride bicycles, photograph wildlife, hike, camp and otherwise use the woods all year long. Sunday hunting would put their safety in jeopardy. Similar bills in other states have been opposed by groups that represent the hiking, camping, wildlife watching, and
religious communities. HB 106 would also put undue strain on Delaware taxpayers who will be forced to pay wildlife police to ensure that hunting laws are not violated.

It is no surprise that the wildlife management division of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) seeks to expand hunting opportunities to Sundays. By giving recreational hunters another day to ply their bloody craft, the DNREC hopes that more people will be exposed to hunting and will take up the practice. The DNREC encourages greater participation in hunting because game managers' salaries are paid for through the sale of hunting licenses. The Division artificially increased the size of the deer herd so as to create a "need" to control the population through hunting. The larger the deer herd is kept, the more licenses can be sold and the more revenue can be raised. This is the reality of wildlife management as practiced by the DNREC. It has everything to do with money.

HB 160 is dangerous and unnecessary legislation that should not be made into law. For more information regarding the practices of state game agencies, please visit our website at:
www.all-creatures.org/cash
or call (845) 256-1400.