Rules would extend bow
hunting season
Associated Press
HARTFORD — New state rules would
expand the bow hunting deer season in Fairfield County and some shoreline
communities and give teen and pre-teen hunters an early start in deer, pheasant
and turkey seasons.
The rules would extend by one month, to
Jan. 31, bow hunting on private land in areas determined by the commissioner of
Environmental Protection.
A split bow hunting season begins Sept. 15 and ends the second Tuesday before
Thanksgiving; the season resumes on the fourth Wednesday after Thanksgiving and
ends Dec. 31.
The rule change might not take effect until the 2004 hunting season, depending
on when printed permits could be updated.
Mark Clavette, a wildlife biologist at the state Department of Environmental
Protection, said the longer deer-hunting season would be a "significant
change" to thin out a growing herd in urban and suburban areas of
Connecticut.
Michael Gregonis, another wildlife biologist, said the most recent deer
population estimates were 76,344 at the end of 1999 and early 2000. The number
is up by more than one-third since 1993.
"What we're looking at are trends rather than absolute numbers,"
Gregonis said. "The population is at a point now that it's growing at a
rapid rate. In areas where there's good hunter access, the population is under
control or is decreasing."
Julie Lewin, lobbyist for Animal Advocacy Connecticut, said she will urge state
lawmakers next year to block the regulations. The rules must be approved by the
General Assembly's Regulation Review Committee, but do not require approval by
the full legislature.
"Bow hunting is the least efficient form of hunting," Lewin said.
"They know and we know and sportsmen know that most bow hunters don't
score.
It's also the cruelest form of hunting. Even with a clean kill, the deer is
hemorrhaging to death."
David Leff, deputy DEP commissioner, said bow hunting is no "less humane
than firearm hunting."
"Bow hunters out there take their avocation very seriously," he said.
"They make every effort to make a clean kill."
Robert T. Crook, lobbyist for the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, said
hunters back the proposed regulations, but said lawmakers should permit Sunday
hunting to curb the deer population.
"This is a stopgap measure," he said. "The real solution is to
get more hunters in the field with Sunday hunting."
The rules also would allow hunters aged 12 to 15 to jump the gun with an early
start in the deer, pheasant and turkey seasons. Youngsters with a junior hunting
license accompanied by a licensed adult mentor — who would not be permitted to
carry a weapon — could hunt on one day before the start of the three hunting
seasons.
Connecticut has allowed youth hunting for years, but would now set aside
particular days for teens.
"We'd like to give young hunters a chance to develop a better sense of what
they encounter in the woods, an improved understanding of hunting safety,"
Leff said.
Lewin called the proposed regulations "an appalling use of state staff,
other resources and money promoting violence and use of weapons among
Connecticut's youth."
Crook said youth hunting is not very different from other sports.
"If they shouldn't be taught a violent sport then we shouldn't have rugby
and football and a lot of other violent sports," he said.
"This just happens to involve a gun."
One proposed policy change may give some comfort to animal rights activists. The
DEP would eliminate a regulation requiring deer carcasses to be open to view on
vehicles.
State officials acknowledge that dead deer slung on the roof of a vehicle
"may be offensive to view by some members of the general public."
http://www.ctcentral.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=5135317&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=7573&rfi=8
