ORGANIZATIONS THAT SUPPORT SUNDAY HUNTING

Pennsylvania BHA Statement on Sunday Hunting March 8, 2018

PA QDMA on Sunday Hunting March 9, 2018

PA Game Commission April 24, 2018

Delta Waterfowl May 2, 2018

Safari Club International May 7, 2018 

National Rifle Association - NRA June 2018

The United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania

National Shooting Sports Foundation - Sunday Hunting Coalition

Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation

WE ALL DESERVE MORE TIME TO MAKE MEMORIES

Katie and Harold posing for a photo after enjoying an ATV ride.

When I left the Vet’s office today, the song on the radio was “She Ain’t In It” by Jon Pardi. As the song ends the lyrics go “my life won’t be the same, as long as she ain’t in it”. Katie isn’t here now, physically. But I’m at peace with the decision. She had declined a lot over the past few months. Couldn’t stand without help. Couldn’t go up or down steps without help. When we detected earlier this week that she was very uncomfortable, I knew the right, kind, loving, caring thing to do was to help her one last time. She earned that much at least.

Today I had to say goodbye to my Katie. After 15 wonderful years that had stolen her body. Please don’t be sad. Yes, I am grieving over the loss of a very beloved family member, but she is at peace now. I believe she is running pain-free with her hunting buddy Cooper.  The beagle that taught her to hunt.

“Just Perfect.”  That’s how my best buddy Bob described my Katie. And I have to agree, she has always been perfect in every way.

Katie a black lab pup came to us through tragedy. Our six-month-old lab Remington had died suddenly and my only course of action was to immediately get another puppy.

I remember going to Lancaster, Pa during a rainstorm to get her.  Megan, my daughter and I fought over Katie's name and never did reach an agreement.  My daughter wanted to name her after Remington since he died at six months, she felt it a good tribute.  I just was not so sure.

I awoke that first morning after adopting the ‘new Remmie’ recalling a dream.  In the dream, I called her Katie. It was June 8, 2003, at 5 am, I was outside listening to the turkeys gobble, the pup by my side.  I walked a bit up the yard and when I turned around, I called out “Katie come”, and she did.

From that moment on she was Katie Daub;  another member of our family.

A day or so later, Kathryn my mother-in-law stopped in. Kathryn asked me what the new addition’s name was.  I will never forget the look on her face when I said, Katie. She backed away a few steps and sat down on a chair. She looked at me and asked, “why Katie?” She knew Megan and I had argued over the pups name and Katie was not on the list. I explained the dream and the name change. Tears immediately welled in her eyes.  Asking Kathryn what was wrong? She replied;  “I have prayed for help. For my deceased brother Bill to watch over us and help us. He always called me ‘Katie’.”  It was as if her prayers had come true as she sat there with tears in her eyes sharing this very personal moment with us.  Maybe Bill did have something to do with it, we will never know.

Katie was “Just Perfect.”

In 15 years, the only time I remember being upset about anything she did was a few rolls in poop. She learned to rabbit hunt from my beagle Cooper. I’d laugh watching her put her paws on a brush pile and bounce, watching for a rabbit to flush.

After Cooper passed we began pheasant hunting, she loved it. Katie was a great scent trailer, I guess earning a degree from beagle school helped with that.

Besides hunting, I think Katie’s favorite thing in life, if not licking the bacon tray after breakfast had to be riding on things. If I was cutting grass, Katie was on the tractor. If I was riding ATV, Katie was on the back. And she never fell off! My hat would blow off, but “Katie would just surf” says Bob, “she was just perfect.”

We all love you and will miss you terribly.  Thanks for helping us through that tough situation that brought us together 15+ years ago.

I will always treasure our time afield. If only we had more.

Your beloved owner, Harold Daub

Watch - Katie Doing What She Loved - Riding & Surfing

HUNTERS ARE CONSERVATIONISTS

Conservation's Latest Problem? Not Enough Hunters

NPR Production

Skunk Bear

Published on May 15, 2018

HOW DOES SUNDAY HUNTING MAKE THINGS BETTER

Executive Director Harold Daub receives a lot of questions regarding Sunday hunting and why a change in the law is needed. 

Here is a recent response to a concerned hunter and conservation group. 

Don and others, I can’t tell you it will get better for you or I personally, it sounds like we get enough opportunity to hunt. But the fact is that surveys of Pennsylvanians who are interested in hunting but aren’t hunting show the number one reason is: TIME.  

For those who work 6 days a week, those who have kids in sports, those with kids in split parent homes....Sunday will make a huge improvement in their hunting.

For all Pennsylvanians, having the strongest possible hunting community has a lot of benefits. Pennsylvania wildlife management responsibility falls on the PA Game Commission. There are 480 species the PGC is charged with management responsibility for, as stipulated in our Commonwealth constitution and Title 34 Game Law. This management system is referred to as the North American Model of Wildlife Management. The basis of that model is: hunters pay to hunt, that license revenue provides the funding needed to promote and protect healthy wildlife populations and habitats.

Another funding source comes from the Wildlife Restoration Act, have you ever heard of Pittman-Robertson (P-R) Funding? This is money collected from an excise tax on firearms and ammunition. A tax that was ASKED for by conservationists about 80 years ago. That funding is reimbursed back to states using a calculation that considers two things: a state’s land mass and the number of licenses sold.

With PA now surrounded by states offering 7 day hunting opportunity, and only 2 other states (Maine and Massachusetts) being more restrictive than PA, the risk is real that PA will see the continued decline in the number of active hunters.

Less hunters = less funding. Funding needed to control things like CWD, EHD, study declines in populations like grouse and bats, reintroduction efforts like the Bald Eagle, and ensuring healthy habitats on our 1.5 million acres of state game lands.  

You see guys, it’s much more than your personal experience. If you’re able to hunt enough today, you are lucky. Many can not.

Hunters United for Sunday Hunting

Executive Director, Harold Daub

AS A FATHER OF TWO

Provide by Pa Outdoor News - Letter to the Editor

From Jeffrey

As a father of two, I understand and strongly support, the push to remove the prohibition of Sunday hunting and to transfer full regulatory control of Sunday hunting to the PA Game Commission. But, as an American citizen, I can’t help but to ask myself, how and why have we allowed some of these outdated Blue Laws to be in existence for as long as we have. The Blue Laws, or laws that were imposed BEFORE William Penn established a government in what would become Pennsylvania, regulated industry, shopping, and other behaviors on Sundays and were supposed to force the citizenry to observe the Lord’s day quietly, at home. Believe it or not, there was a time when we could not play organized sports such as football or baseball, make a sale of any kind, go fishing, attend a movie, shoot pool, or buy a beer on Sunday. A large percentage of the Blue Laws have been considered unenforceable by court decree and many of them have been revoked, amended, or ignored. Let’s face it, like it or not, a lot has changed since colonial times. It’s time we take a stand as free Americans and allow hunting, like many of the other activities that were once not allowed, on Sundays too. For the life of me, I will never understand the logic that allows us to play soccer, football and baseball, drink alcohol, gamble, and partake in other pastimes, but not take our sons and daughters into the woods hunting with us on Sundays. 

EXPLAIN TO HIM HOW THAT'S FAIR

From John, My girlfriend has split custody of her ten-year-old son that she takes hunting. His father is not a hunter and will not take him out. So really he gets one day of rifle deer season. Explain to him how this is fair being that he's only with his mother every other weekend.

I HAVE 2 KIDS OF MY OWN AND MENTOR ANOTHER

From Dean,  I have 2 kids of my own and mentor another. Not counting my nieces and nephews. It’s hard keeping them interested in hunting. They are in sports so Saturday hunting is limited if they have a game. Sundays would open up another day to hunt for them. What I’m not understanding is the thinking if you include all the species that can be hunted it creates 16 more days to hunt a year. To the kids, that’s a lot. The only 2 Sunday’s that is going to make a huge amount of people in the woods would be the 2 weeks of rifle. As for the landowners or those that want to hike. We hunt a lot of tourist areas we see hikers, bikers, ATV and motorcycles almost every day we hunt. Those people just wear a color that doesn’t have brown or white in it. As for landowners just talk to those hunting your land and tell them they can’t hunt there on Sundays. We have farms that only let us hunt archery or shotgun. If those people you let hunt your land respect you as a landowner they will follow any laws or demands you have. I really think the only way to keep kids and other hunters interested is letting them hunt Sundays. We have guys we hunt with that only get a few hours (1-2) after work to hunt and their job requires overtime on Saturdays. They love the sport of hunting but every year they are asking if buying a license is worth it. They sit home Sundays looking for something to do or hunt other states. The fact that hunting is allowed on Sundays already for predators gives the ones against it no leg to stand on because if they are in the woods there are already hunters there on Sundays. Education is the key to Sunday hunting if the people against it would understand it already exists and anytime someone goes into the woods they wear bright colors ( any color other then brown, black or white ) will work they will be fine. If a hunter can’t see the difference between a person and an animal they shouldn’t have a gun. Think of the kids and future generations of hunters that can’t hunt because of school. I have to explain all the time to my kids why we can fish and do anything else on Sunday except hunt food.