Opponents taking aim at law that allows deer hunting in city
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Pittsburgh: A great place to bag a buck.
So says Joe Nicola, a West Mifflin carpenter and taxidermist who has bow hunted in city neighborhoods.
"I've been hunting around the city for a decade now, and I know we've killed hundreds of deer between six or eight of us," he said yesterday.
Since human development creates both food sources for deer and concentrates them in pockets of woods, the city "is really great hunting. It's a bow hunter's dream," said Mr. Nicola.
Urban hunting, though, has a target on its back.
On Tuesday, after a parade of Mt. Washington residents complained about deer harvesting in two-year-old Grandview Scenic Byway Park, City Council President Doug Shields proposed that the state ban hunting within the city limits. The 268-acre park snakes around populous Mt. Washington and Duquesne Heights.
Some said hunters dragged deer carcasses in front of their houses or, worse yet, left them rotting at the end of residential lanes.
"If it's a neighborhood, and there are kids running around, hiking, biking, you've got to think about their safety," said Frank Valenta, president of the Mount Washington Community Development Corp. The city needs to protect "the residents, the kids, the seniors ... everybody who believes in walking through the woods."
Mr. Nicola said there's no danger, especially from bow hunting, and said smart hunters are careful and courteous to neighbors.
State law allows hunting with a bow, crossbow, shotgun or muzzleloader -- but no rifles -- within Allegheny County, including the city. The state has stricter rules for Philadelphia, allowing only bow and crossbow hunting within its borders.
Statewide, gun hunters must be more than 150 yards from any building or dwelling, and bow hunters must be 50 yards from such structures. Hunters also must get permission from the owner of the land on which they hunt.
The city can place restrictions on hunting on municipal land, or just deny permission, but can't limit the practice on private land within its borders, said Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser.
"They can't say, 'You can't hunt in the city, period,' " he said. Municipalities have tried to ban hunting indirectly, by outlawing the discharge of firearms, but have lost in court, he said.
The city can, and has, outlawed hunting in its parks. It's the city's job to enforce that, Mr. Feaser said, noting that his agency has just two full-time wildlife conservation officers assigned to Allegheny County.
Mr. Shields is of a different view.
"It's the Game Commission's responsibility to make sure that they're policing that safety zone," he said. "I don't need us giving our police another job to do every fall."
State legislation signed into law this year, sponsored by Rep. Harry Readshaw, D-Carrick, immunizes landowners from liability for injuries caused by hunters using their property. Mr. Shields, though, predicts that there "ain't a jury in the world that isn't going to find the city liable" if someone is shot by a hunter using city-owned land not lined with "no hunting" signs.
City Solicitor George Specter has written to Mr. Shields suggesting that the city post no-hunting signs, rather than seek a citywide ban.
A ban "is something we would oppose," said Mr. Feaser. "There's going to be one of two ways you're going to manage deer. ... hunting or Hondas." Deer contraception, he notes, is unproven.
First Published December 14, 2007 12:00 am
