The Granville Village Council has voted to approve a plan that calls for the use of bow hunting within town limits to assist in reducing the overgrown deer population. Yesterday, I brought you a story about the problems there and made reference to an article printed in the Newark Advocate by one resident who offered up a truck load of ideas on what could be done to control the deer population – none of which involved hunting.
There are stipulations with the approved plan, one of them being that hunters must have the permission of the landowner to hunt a specific area, only if the Chief of Police has approved that area. In some cases it shouldn’t be a problem finding willing landowners.
Eleanor Cohen, of East Broadway, for instance, told the council members several deer literally jumped over her as she was kneeling down in her garden.
“It scared the hell out of me,†she said. “I would like somebody to sit on my garage roof and hunt the deer. When you have three deer prancing on East Pearl Street in the middle of the day I think you have a problem.â€
Of course not everyone was in agreement with the approval. Janet Worth, the same woman who wrote the article I referred to in yesterday’s post, had this to say.
“My neighbor told me it wouldn’t be safe to go outside because he had been given permission to bowhunt. We didn’t go outside because we feared being hit.
“Now there seems to be a smokescreen,†Worth added, “to open up suburban neighborhoods to recreational hunting. I don’t know anything about bowhunting but it seems pretty scary.â€
I think it safe to conclude that Ms. Worth’s neighbor might not think so highly of the anti-hunter’s stance on this issue. At least she admits she knows nothing about bow hunting and as such, we, as humans, always fear the unknown.
The approved plan will have an annual review clause and this year’s hunt will begin in 30 days.
Tom Remington
