THE FAMILY THAT SLAYS TOGETHER STAYS TOGETHER!* THE DEC WANTS A HOLIDAY HUNTING SEASON!
Believe it or not, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) ACTUALLY BELIEVES THAT!
Witness their proposal for a “Holiday Hunting Season”:
3. Needs and benefits: This rulemaking will provide additional opportunity for New York deer hunters and their families by creating a second portion of the late bow and muzzleloading deer seasons in the Southern Zone, adding the holiday week of December 26 through January 1. During the Christmas to New Year holiday week families gather, many people are off from work, and students are on school break. This provides time for families to hunt together, share memories and make new ones, and gather venison for the next year. This new opportunity is consistent with the department’s efforts to recruit, retain, and reactivate New York hunters.
THANKS TO A WILDLIFE REHABBER, C.A.S.H. was made aware of the DEC’s nefarious proposal for a holiday hunting season just two days before the comment period ended, and C.A.S.H. sent out the following, which was also turned into our comment:
URGENT DEADLINE: COMMENTS NEEDED BY 11/8, TO OPPOSE A BOW AND MUZZLELOADER DEER HUNTING SEASON DURING CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR, THROUGH JAN 1!
Comment points to make in opposition to this proposal:
The DEC is desperate to increase hunting as the cruel activity is declining. Hunters are less than 3% of the NY population, yet our wildlife is managed to be targets for this small minority. The game division is funded by excise taxes on firearms and ammunition thus, they have turned our wildlife into targets for hunters.
Deer hunting now would end on December 22nd. We need to ensure that the majority of New Yorkers can enjoy the holiday without muzzleloaders blasting throughout the day, and without witnessing animals who’ve been injured by firearms or arrows. That sure- ly will ruin the holiday for the 97% of the public.
As Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) is killing many deer now, it’s puzzling that the DEC is encouraging even more deer to die by bullets.
Car-deer collisions have been shown to increase as hunting starts, surely there will be more injury and death as deer flee hunters during a time when more cars will be on the road as people travel to be with family.
More lead will be pumped into the environment as it is not illegal to use lead bullets or shot in NY. Lead ammunition seeps into the ground water, and poisons raptors and carrion feeders who eat animals shot with lead. For heartbreaking video of what lead does to animals, please see: https://www.facebook.com/fffwildlifecenter/
We urge the DEC to do the right thing and not extend this carnage.
Zelda Penzel has a loud megaphone for anything that helps animals, and she sent the word out farther. We’re printing some of the comments that were shared with Zelda.
COMMENTS:
I urge the DEC not to add a Christmas-to-New Year’s- Day deer hunting season in the Southern Zone.
Deer are sentient beings. They play, care deeply for their young, warn one another in times of danger, and experience fear, anger, and grief. They have individual personalities. And they want to live as much as we do. There’s already too much killing of them.
In addition, they currently suffer from new diseases, and the holiday season will be a time of more cars on the road. Hunters will increase their deaths by scaring them out of the woods onto roads.
Have mercy.
William Crane
We are very much opposed to extending the 2020 deer hunt for an additional 7 days during the holiday season.
Considering that the number of licenses sold for this year apparently broke records, it should not be a hardship for hunters to forego this extension, especially when it inconveniences and presents potential danger to others.
We expect to have several grandchildren here, with their pets, which are an addition to our own. They all spend considerable time playing outside in our rural location. In general, I am very glad to know when hunting season is over, so this holiday “surprise” is most unwelcome to our family. We do not wish to keep children and pets indoors, for their own safety, in order to accommodate additional hunting opportunities which are already very liberal.
Again, we are definitely NOT in favor of the plan to extend deer hunting season in the southern zone.
G.C.
I am writing to express my opposition to this Holiday Deer Hunt Proposal which I find to be an audacious, self-serving intrusion by the DEC on the rights of 97% of the non-hunting population of New York! The right to “peace and quiet”, free from the sights and sounds of senseless violence, suffering, bloodshed and killing, and especially during the sacred period of the Christmas and Kwanzaa holidays is surely due us, after a year that will go down in the annals of history for the suffering and hardships it has caused to so many people – with the deaths and illness due to Covid-19, as well as loss of jobs and income!
The DEC is apparently desperate to increase hunting, as this cruel activity is declining. Hunters are less than 3% of the New York population, yet our wildlife is still managed to be targets for this small minority. The game division is funded by excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, thus the DEC have turned our wildlife into targets for hunters. The handwriting is on the wall and it is long past time to find alternate ways to fund the DEC.
Teaching young people to be compassionate, to “hunt” with cameras, to view, appreciate and value wildlife and the outdoors, while learning to live in harmony with other species, is what would demonstrate true, responsible, leadership and stewardship.
Deer hunting now would end on December 22nd. We need to ensure that the majority of New Yorkers can enjoy the holiday without muzzleloaders blasting throughout the day, and without witnessing animals who’ve been injured by firearms or arrows. That surely will ruin the holiday for the 97% of the public.
As Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) is killing many deer now, so it’s puzzling that the DEC is encouraging even more deer to die by bullets.
Car-deer collisions have been shown to increase as hunting starts, surely there will be more injury and death as deer flee hunters during a time when more cars will be on the road as people travel to be with family.
More lead will be pumped into the environment as it is not illegal to use lead bullets or shot in New York. Lead ammunition seeps into the ground water, and poisons raptors and carrion feeders who eat animals shot with lead. For heartbreaking video of what that does to animals, please see: https://www.facebook.com/fffwildlifecenter/
We urge the DEC to do the right thing and at the very least not extend this carnage.
Zelda Penzel
…And think about this; In order to hunt during this special season, you would need to buy a muzzleloader and ammunition for a muzzleloader. That will increase revenue for the firearms industry, thus increasing income for the NYS Bureau of Wildlife within the DEC.
*An Ann Ilkiw slogan
