Sunday hunting proposal sparks fierce debate
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SOMERSET, Pa. -- On a brisk Sunday afternoon at Laurel Hill State Park, 12-year-old Elaine Adams craned her neck to watch red-tailed hawks circling over the lake. Her father Steven Adams pointed skyward. Getting outdoors is a family tradition, one that Mr. Adams said he fears could be put in jeopardy by state legislation that would require his family to share the outdoors with hunters on Sundays.
"My daughter and I like to get out on the weekends, bring binoculars and watch the wildlife," said Mr. Adams, of Westmoreland County. "If we can't get out on Sundays because hunters are out there, it would take away quality father-daughter time in our family."
Not far away at State Game Land 50 near Somerset, Karl Adkins of Berlin helped his son John, 14, to sight in the boy's .30-06.
"Hunting is one of the safest outdoor sports, and all the studies show that," said Mr. Adkins. "I work on weekdays. Why is it that [we] have only one day a week to go hunting together? That can't be right."
As the Adkins and hunters statewide gear up for the opening day of firearm deer season Monday, state legislators are gearing up for a vote, still unscheduled, that could result in the legalization of Sunday hunting.
Public hunting is the main tool states use to manage wildlife. It is also an economic engine, estimated in a 2006 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study to bring Pennsylvania more than $1.5 billion annually.
On Sundays in 39 states, including New York and Ohio, hunters share the wild places with hikers, bicyclists and other outdoors users. West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and South Carolina permit some Sunday hunting with restrictions.
Pennsylvania is one of six states, all in the East, in which hunting on Sunday is banned (hunting foxes, coyotes and crows on Sundays is permitted in Pennsylvania). Sunday hunting has been illegal here since the 1870s, when it was included in a long list of "blue laws" that enforced a religiously inspired day of rest. Fishing on Sundays was illegal until 1937, and many restaurants were closed on Sundays until the 1970s. The state's restrictions on Sunday liquor sales is among a dwindling set of laws considered archaic by many Pennsylvanians.
House Bill 1760 would remove Sunday hunting from the blue laws, transferring authority from the legislature to the state Game Commission, which would be mandated to implement some form of Sunday hunting within one year of passage. Board members of the agency, which is funded mostly by hunting license fees but chartered to manage wildlife for all Pennsylvanians, voted this year to support the bill.
First Published November 27, 2011 12:00 am
