Anne Arundel County Special Delegation Meeting on Sunday Hunting
Friday, February 7, 8:30 am
Park in the Gott Parking Garage and walk northeast across Bladen Street to the House Building.
Last Friday DNR argued vehemently in support of Sunday hunting. Its representative said it is safe for hunters and outdoor recreation to share Sundays in the countryside because they have had NO REPORTS OF INJURIES from Sunday hunting.
Many of us recall encounters with hunters on private land during deer season. Whether they resulted in injury, near-injury, threats, or death to farm animals or pets our delegates need to hear our stories today or tomorrow.
The delegation is scheduled again to vote on Sunday hunting this Friday morning at 9am. They may offer a compromise that adds fewer Sundays than originally proposed. Let them know that Safe Sundays work because hunters and the community know it is a longstanding tradition. The confusion and conflict created by quietly slipping in Sundays here and there is bad policy for everyone.
We will compile your stories and present them at the hearing in writing.
For Emails and Calls to County Delegation click on
To share a story, simply scroll down to the Post a Comment section below and describe your encounter. If you don't see that button click on the title of the article above and scroll again to the bottom. If technology isn't working for you, email your story to Steuart Pittman at dodonfarm@verizon.net.
Please include your name and any details that you wish to share. Our delegates are being told that deer hunting is compatible with outdoor recreational activities. Your stories can change their minds.
A hunter with permission to hunt on my neighbor's land put up a tree stand along the fence line outside the hay field where we exercise horses. We had no right to ask him to move his stand so we made a point of loudly announcing our presence each time we rode by. He finally moved the stand.
ReplyDeleteMy brother-in-law shot and killed my father's newborn calf thinking it was a deer just before sunrise. The family never let him forget.
My neighbor, Ellen Shepherd of Harwood, had a horse in its pasture shot and kiiled by a hunter from adjacent land. I had trained the horse for her and he was for sale for $10,000. She eventually got her money from the hunter.
Each year we ride the trails in orange vests and find at least three poachers who claim to have permission to hunt on our private land. We find them on days when hunting is legal, but have never found them on a Sunday. If Sundays become legal we will have poachers on Sundays whether we want them or not.
Steuart PIttman, Davidsonville, MD
Here's a Sunday poacher story that happened on Dodon Farm.
ReplyDeleteI was riding of a Sunday as a volunteer on the crew that took down the tape ties that had earlier been placed to mark the course for the St. Margaret's Pony Club hunter pace the day before. Seeing a marker on an overhanging branch in a hedge row, I rode up close and leaned way over my horse's neck to grab the tie. He spooked and spun, dumping me. As I got up, wonderiing why he was snuffling and snorting like a jabberwocki, I followed his gaze to a guy who was lying down in the scrub with his shotgun clasped to his heart. "Hunting" I asked. "No, just walking." he replied. He was in cammies, boots to cap, and aping a felled telephone pole, obviously in hiding as he was totally mute until I addressed him. I remounted and he got up and walked the other way--a poacher apparently, as well as a scofflaw.
Pat Hrubiak
Much of the opposition to Sunday hunting has been that Sundays are currently safe from such outlaws due to the Sunday Hunting Ban. This story contradicts the theme that Sundays are currently safe to ride, but would be unsafe if legal, non-poacher, non-outlaw hunters were allowed to hunt on their own property (and theirs alone). In other words, outlaws are already making the woods unsafe, and the Sunday Hunting Ban isn't working.
DeleteAs a landowner we have seen consistently that poachers only poach on the legal hunting days. So even if they allow Sunday hunting and we tell our approved hunters to stay him that day, the poachers will still be on our land with their fake notes and stories about who gave them permission.
DeleteIn 20+ years of private land hunting, including some very sensitive hunting leases in horse country, I've not come across the types of outlaws you describe, and while it's my personal experience that criminals disregard the Sunday ban, I can't and won't assert that your experience (the opposite of mine) is invalid or not true.
DeleteSundays are safe for mixed use across most of the country, and yet non-hunting users in the Mid-Atlantic are very fearful of that scenario. One day I'd like to see much more in-depth discussions, including on the part of DNR, to allow them or local police to be more responsive to these issues that rural landowners have with hunters. In Ohio, for example, Sunday hunting only proceeded after ODNR pledged (among other things) to substantially increase their game warden presence on Sundays, and I believe hunting license prices were increased to accomodate for that. I'm not sure that's the solution here in MD, but I hope one day we can have conversations like that (including "what do we do legislatively if Sunday hunting DOES become a disaster?") instead of simple positions of "let's add 15 sundays to the hunting season!" vs. "No sunday hunting, ever."
Also, thank you for not only NOT deleting my comment, but providing a response. I recognize you're not obligated to do either.
DeleteYour perspective is useful. We have heard very little during this process from advocates for Sunday hunting other than from DNR. I agree that most deer hunters are very responsible and law-abiding. They do a great service to the community and I for one am all for compromise and creative ways to reduce the herd.
DeleteI also was forwarded your email to our Farm Bureau secretary, and wanted to assure you that I did not testify that Anne Arundel Farm Bureau had taken a position against Sunday hunting. I testified that while MD Farm Bureau supports Sunday hunting and Virginia Farm Bureau opposes it, Anne Arundel County Farm Bureau had not taken a position. I am on the board and checked the history of discussion on the topic with our president before making that statement. We will discuss it at our next meeting and may or may not take a position. MD Farm Bureau testimony had the same statement about the Anne Arundel County Farm Bureau position.
I heard your testimony there, we're on the same page. I was curious if a position announcement would have suddenly appeared right before your testimony but Kudos to you and your leadership, it didn't.
DeleteI honestly believe that poachers and lazy hunters ("not worrying" about property boundaries) are a mutual concern. I grew up as a very traditional, conservative hunter in an area rife with outlaws that resulted in very negative public sentiment locally and pretty heavy harassment from the game wardens on a regular basis. I hate to see what should be rational discussions about allocating property activities on one's own private land derailed by the persistence of knuckleheads, who, as we all know, could end up shooting you or I one day.........remote as the possibility may be, the public, riders, and hunters deserve for that possibility to be 0%. Again, I wonder if this is an area where every time DNR expresses an interest in expanding days of hunting (Sundays or otherwise) we need to pressure them to increase game warden staffing. A more regular presence of the triangular NRP logo might (maybe) straighten some of these guys up.
I was riding on Dodon farm of a Sunday as a volunteer on the crew that took down the tape ties that had earlier been placed to mark the course for the St. Margaret's Pony Club hunter pace the day before. Seeing a marker on an overhanging branch in a hedge row, I rode up close and leaned way over my horse's neck to grab the tie. He spooked and spun, dumping me. As I got up, wonderiing why he was snuffling and snorting like a jabberwocki, I followed his gaze to a guy who was lying down in the scrub with his shotgun clasped to his heart. "Hunting" I asked. "No, just walking." he replied. He was in cammies, boots to cap, and aping a felled telephone pole, obviously in hiding as he was totally mute until I addressed him. I remounted and he got up and walked the other way--a poacher apparently, as well as a scofflaw.
ReplyDeletePat Hrubiak (Realidy Inn Farm)