Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 25, 1992 TAG: 9202250265
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: THOMAS O'BRIEN and STEVEN FRIEDMAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
VIRGINIA'S SPOILSPORTS
THE HUNTING season for deer has ended and hunters are out of the woods for the season. Hunters with respect for the wild have spent their hours in Virginia's forests, respectful of the natural world and of the rights and safety of others.Unfortunately, a small number of scofflaws have demonstrated disrespect for the natural and human kingdoms. The most recent statistics showed 6,574 arrests for violations of Virginia hunting laws in 1990-1991.
Hunters who get drunk beyond sensibility or are carelessly unsafe hurt the reputation of all hunters in Virginia. It is the responsibility of the commonwealth to make sure that all guns are handled properly at all times, with safe and responsible behavior. This is supported by all honorable hunters.
Too many Virginians complain every year of loud, drunken gunmen trespassing on their private property, disrespectful of even simple safety and the legitimate interests of country homeowners, farmers and those who raise animals.
This is hardly the fault of Virginia's overburdened game wardens, who obviously can't police all of the land in Virginia. Some riflemen, too lazy to even enter the forest, cruise our country roads shooting at deer from trucks, recklessly looking for a free meal snatched from someone's private property.
Yet, there are obviously nowhere near a sufficient number of game wardens employed to adequately police these violations. Enforcement efforts have declined dramatically because of big cuts in enforcement funding, and even further cuts likely will be made this year.
We don't have enough deer decoys (fake deer within sight of public roads, to catch those illegally shooting out of pickup trucks). But better enforcement requires more funds, and no one wants to pay higher taxes. It doesn't make sense to force non-hunters to pay the fee to keep illegal practices off their own land.
Who should pay to enforce our wildlife laws?
How about those arrested for hunting without paying license fees? Those firing illegally into the night? Those killing our endangered species? Those hunting out of season? Those trespassing?
The thousands of arrests that were made include 1,075 people arrested for hunting without having paid the required license fees. These individuals are flagrant scofflaws, refusing even to pay the small amounts that go toward providing enforcement.
More than 430 people were arrested last year for illegally hunting out of season.
And more than 800 hunters were arrested for spotlighting - the despicable practice of shooting in the dark at animals who freeze in a bright light. This practice is extremely dangerous. (Discharging firearms is dangerous enough in broad daylight, let alone in the dark of night.) It is the ugliest kind of unsporting behavior. (The helpless prey does not move.) These night arrests would be a lot higher if Virginia's enforcement team were adequately funded.
Finally, a whopping 1,358 hunters, most all with loaded firearms, were arrested for trespassing on private property.
Raising fines on violations would accomplish two things:
Greater deterrence would reduce the total number of violators, and more enforcement funding would catch more of the outlaws.
Virginia could provide new jobs to game wardens entrusted to protect our rights to privacy and safety from drunken and careless riflemen roaming on our wooded land, and could provide funds to compensate farmers and animal owners for costly animal losses.
A few more deer decoys might make illegal hunters think twice about shooting from pickups. Reprehensible practices like spotlighting, illegal baiting and poaching of endangered species, all anathema to the legitimate hunter, would be better policed and punished.
This would help improve the poor reputation that responsible hunters get from irresponsible ones. Responsible hunters would encounter less public resistance and would themselves be safer in the woods, because unsafe hunters would be faced with more effective enforcement. And the average family would rest safer knowing that the gun-carrying hunters were self-policing, and that revenue from illegal-hunting fines was providing better safety assurance in our backyards.
Perhaps some of this revenue from fines could be earmarked for the preservation of habitat, so that wildlife will still have some sanctuary from the exploding subdivisions going up everywhere throughout Virginia. Land is disappearing every day in Virginia; anybody who enjoyed the outdoors 40 years ago is sadly aware of how much woodland we have lost, and is still being torn down every day.
Thomas O'Brien and Steven Friedman are, respectively, director for research and executive director of Horizon Institute for Policy Solutions in Charlottesville.