Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Support growing for Sunday hunting, survey shows
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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A decade ago a slight majority of Virginia hunters supported the state's ban on hunting on Sunday.
Times have changed.
A lot.
According to a recent Department of Game and Inland Fisheries survey of the state's licensed hunters, 62 percent would like to see the ban lifted, compared to 34 percent who support the prohibition.
The figures, released Monday by the agency, are particularly significant considering the 1996 survey showed only 45 percent of hunters supported Sunday hunting, while 48 percent opposed it.
Department board member Jimmy Hazel, an avid hunter, said he wasn't surprised by the findings.
"It's consistent with what I hear out there," said Hazel, who lives in Fairfax County.
The game department mailed out 5,000 surveys -- worded similarly to the 1996 survey to ensure consistency -- to randomly selected licensed hunters starting in late November. The agency got responses from 59 percent of the hunters contacted. The margin of error was 5 percent.
The high return rate helped confirm the strong feelings the state's hunters have on the topic, as did results showing the strength of their convictions.
Nearly all of the respondents rated their support or opposition as strong, while only 3.8 percent said they had no opinion one way or the other.
Fifty-three percent said they strongly support Sunday hunting, compared to 28.5 percent who said they strongly oppose Sunday hunting.
A summary of the survey results is posted on the agency's Web site, www.dgif.virginia.gov.
The game department does not have any control over the ban, a long standing law that must be addressed by state legislators. But the department can provide delegates and senators with information to help them make educated decisions on outdoors-related legislation.
With the topic of Sunday hunting coming up during every General Assembly session -- one bill already has been introduced for this year's session, which starts Wednesday -- Hazel and other board members weren't comfortable relying on 10-year-old survey information.
Hazel said he doubts the game department's board will take a position on Sunday hunting during this year's General Assembly.
But he said establishing that most hunters are now in favor of lifting the ban provides a solid foundation for moving forward with more research into the viability of such a move.
For example, Hazel wondered, "What will be the fiscal impact?"
Will Sunday hunting lead to increased license sales? If so, will the revenue be enough to offset costs associated with the change?
The agency has faced financial difficulty in recent years, hardships brought on in part by slowly declining numbers of licensed hunters. Many proponents of lifting the Sunday hunting ban have said that it could help with hunter recruitment and retention.
Sixty-five percent of the surveyed hunters said they would be likely to take a youngster hunting on Sunday if it were allowed.
Some supporters of the ban have predicted allowing Sunday hunting won't significantly increase hunter numbers. Many cite religious convictions for their support of the ban.
Bob Duncan, director of the department's Wildlife Division, said lifting the ban might require some tweaking of regulations, but nothing major.
"It's not really a biological issue," said Duncan, noting that the agency's position is neutral on the topic. "There's nothing that couldn't be addressed."
Responses varied only slightly by region.
The highest level of support for Sunday hunting was found in northern Virginia, where 66 percent of respondents support Sunday hunting. The south central Piedmont region, which includes Roanoke, Botetourt and Franklin counties, had the lowest support, at 58 percent. More than 64 percent of the respondents in Southwest Virginia support Sunday hunting.
In addition to their general feeling on Sunday hunting, hunters were asked their opinion regarding specific types of hunting. Sunday hunting support was strong for all but two types of hunting.
Just 26 percent of respondents strongly supported hunting bears or deer with dogs on Sunday, while roughly 50 percent of the respondents strongly opposed those methods.
Feelings on the ban varied significantly based on the hunter's age.
Of hunters under 30, 76 percent support Sunday hunting. Only 41 percent of hunters over 60 support Sunday hunting.
Surveyed hunters ranged in age from 14 to 83, with an average age of 45.2. Ninety-seven percent were men. Sixty-six percent live on farms or in rural areas, 13 percent live in towns with populations less than 50,000, and 21 percent live in suburbs or urban areas.
