The Healey-Driscoll hunting proposal (to permit hunting on Sunday, allow crossbow hunting, and allow hunting as close as 150 feet from a house or dwelling) raises questions of fairness and safety. Currently nature lovers have only one day a week to enjoy the outdoors while hunters can do so for six days. Crossbows are more likely to wound animals that are often left to die; crossbows belong to archery clubs. Allowing hunters to approach within 150 feet of a road, (approximately the distance between two building lots), is a decision that raises obvious safety concerns, particularly for households with children and animals.
The proposal also makes misleading statements by asserting that “several states in New England,” or “other states in the Northeast,” have more permissive rules. It is true that Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont already allow one or another of the proposed rules. It is also true that these states have had more hunting accidents than Massachusetts over the last 15 years. Why compromise rules that have promoted successful and safe hunting seasons in our state?
In this election year, the proposal to relax hunting rules at the expense of public safety very much looks like an attempt to gain the hunting vote. It is ironic that, after giving a free hand to out-of-state solar developments that will require the destruction of large tracts of forested land, the state is now seeking the votes of the hunters among us who fully benefit from and love the outdoors.
I used to see wild turkeys and deer pretty often in my area. I have not seen either in the last two years. I no longer hear the coyotes, and the black bears no longer raid the bird feeders. Where has the wildlife gone? The hunting season is long enough.
Marie Huet
Whately