Sunday Hunting on the State Senate Docket

By Kim Jarrett/The Center Square

HARRISBURG – After years of debate, Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania appears to be on a path for approval. The bill passed by the House of Representatives last month will allow hunting on three Sundays.

The Senate is expected to take up the bill as soon as Monday, and reports indicate that Gov. Tom Wolf is inclined to sign it.
The bill is a “positive step in the right direction,” said Bryan Burhans, executive director of the Pennsylvania Game and Fish Commission. He has worked in several states where Sunday hunting passed and fought off the same arguments.

“There’s religious groups that would say, ‘Hey, Sundays are for worship,’” Burhans said on the PCN Call-in show, noting also that some people enjoy having a day to be in the woods without having to worry about hunters.

But no one should have to be worried about hunters because the sport is extremely safe and the state’s safety record is “second-to-none,” Burhans said.

Sunday hunting may also bring an economic boost to Pennsylvania. Burhans said he knows several people who hunt on Sunday in surrounding states, where it is legal.

Pennsylvania’s deer season is scheduled to begin this year on Saturday, Nov. 30.

Burhans also addressed chronic wasting disease (CWD), which affects the state’s deer population. While some deer infected with the disease may have a drooping head, be salivating and not be afraid of humans, some deer will show no signs for up to two year after they are infected. The disease has not been reported in humans.

The state has set up disease management areas where infected deer have been found. The numbers of infected deer are growing but remains below 5 percent, Burhans said.

The Game Commission offers free testing of deer heads, Burnham said. The testing is completed in two to three weeks, Burhans said.

Public comments are being accepted until February 2020 on a comprehensive plan to address CWD. Some of the possible solutions include extending deer season and allowing hunters to take additional antlered deer in an isolated area where an infected deer was found.

Burhans reiterated what he said earlier about the importance of hunters.

“Without the effort they put in hunting and harvesting deer, and submitting samples from the deer they harvest in CWD areas, our collective fight to slow CWDs spread and limit the disease where it exists in Pennsylvania would be all the more an uphill battle,” he said.