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April 14, 2003
Sunday hunting bill awaits Ehrlich's signature
by DAVID DISHNEAU, Herald-Mail (Hagerstown)
Sunday deer hunting, banned in Maryland since Colonial times, would be allowed under legislation awaiting Gov. Robert Ehrlich's signature.
The Maryland Sportsmen's Association is "ecstatic" about the prospect, president Steven Huettner said after the General Assembly passed the bill.
"We've been working on it for the last four years," said Huettner, a project director at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
Ehrlich hasn't said whether he will sign the measure, which would add two Sundays a year, on private property only, to the season; Sunday hunts on public land still would be banned.
Sunday hunting also would remain illegal in 11 counties - Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's, Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester - that chose to be excluded.
Huettner said the proposed addition of one Sunday during bow-and-arrow season and one during the two-week firearms season would put hunting more on a par with fishing, mall shopping and other weekend pastimes.
"It allows hunters an opportunity to go out and do what they like," he said. "Why shouldn't an individual be allowed to hunt on his own property on a Sunday?"
Opponents cite one reason: safety.
"A bullet from a rifle or a shot fired from a shotgun can cross property lines," said Michael Markarian, president of the Fund for Animals, a Silver Spring-based animal protection group.
"Hikers, campers and horseback riders generally don't use the woods during hunting season except for Sundays," he said. "They want to go out when they know it's safe. This bill takes away that comfort level."
Others in the state also oppose the Sunday hunting proposal.
"We certainly are making the appeals to him," said Jacquie Cowan, a board member of the Maryland Horse Council, which opposes Sunday hunting.
She said deer season, in the fall and early winter, is also the best time of year for riding horses on trail networks that cross private and public lands. Temperatures are cool, the ground is firm and insects are sparse.
"We use the same trails that hikers, bikers, hunters and all do," she said. "We just want to maintain the current balance."
The legislature last year approved a Sunday deer hunting bill that Gov. Parris Glendening vetoed. It would have expanded the firearm deer season to at least 21 days, including one Sunday a year in parts of the state.
Opposition to this year's bill was weakened when the Maryland Farm Bureau dropped its objections, which had been based on some members' religious concerns. Spokeswoman Valerie Connelly said participants at the group's December convention decided against taking a position on Sunday hunting.
"We recognized that some of our members support it and some of our members oppose and we decided to just get out of it," she said.
Sunday hunting bill awaits Ehrlich's signature
by DAVID DISHNEAU, Herald-Mail (Hagerstown)
Sunday deer hunting, banned in Maryland since Colonial times, would be allowed under legislation awaiting Gov. Robert Ehrlich's signature.
The Maryland Sportsmen's Association is "ecstatic" about the prospect, president Steven Huettner said after the General Assembly passed the bill.
"We've been working on it for the last four years," said Huettner, a project director at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
Ehrlich hasn't said whether he will sign the measure, which would add two Sundays a year, on private property only, to the season; Sunday hunts on public land still would be banned.
Sunday hunting also would remain illegal in 11 counties - Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's, Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester - that chose to be excluded.
Huettner said the proposed addition of one Sunday during bow-and-arrow season and one during the two-week firearms season would put hunting more on a par with fishing, mall shopping and other weekend pastimes.
"It allows hunters an opportunity to go out and do what they like," he said. "Why shouldn't an individual be allowed to hunt on his own property on a Sunday?"
Opponents cite one reason: safety.
"A bullet from a rifle or a shot fired from a shotgun can cross property lines," said Michael Markarian, president of the Fund for Animals, a Silver Spring-based animal protection group.
"Hikers, campers and horseback riders generally don't use the woods during hunting season except for Sundays," he said. "They want to go out when they know it's safe. This bill takes away that comfort level."
Others in the state also oppose the Sunday hunting proposal.
"We certainly are making the appeals to him," said Jacquie Cowan, a board member of the Maryland Horse Council, which opposes Sunday hunting.
She said deer season, in the fall and early winter, is also the best time of year for riding horses on trail networks that cross private and public lands. Temperatures are cool, the ground is firm and insects are sparse.
"We use the same trails that hikers, bikers, hunters and all do," she said. "We just want to maintain the current balance."
The legislature last year approved a Sunday deer hunting bill that Gov. Parris Glendening vetoed. It would have expanded the firearm deer season to at least 21 days, including one Sunday a year in parts of the state.
Opposition to this year's bill was weakened when the Maryland Farm Bureau dropped its objections, which had been based on some members' religious concerns. Spokeswoman Valerie Connelly said participants at the group's December convention decided against taking a position on Sunday hunting.
"We recognized that some of our members support it and some of our members oppose and we decided to just get out of it," she said.
