Efforts are underway to give PGC more control over Sunday hunting, deer hunting preserves

Regulations limiting Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania may be reduced if an amendment is added to a bill that addresses antiquated regulations on professional baseball and football being played on Sundays.

Pennsylvania House Bill 391 was placed on the table of the State House on May 25. Introduced by state reps. Matthew Dowling, Karen Boback, George Dunbar, Jesse Topper, David Rowe, Joe Ciresi, Lee James and Dan Moult, the bill would repeal Act 49 of 1933, which prohibits individuals and associations from playing or engaging in baseball or football games before 2 p.m. and after 6 p.m. on Sundays. This would allow the Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers and all other football and baseball teams to legally play games on Sundays.

The antiquated 1933 law requires license fees for games to be played ranging from $50 in cities to $1 in townships.

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Chair of the Game and Fisheries Committee, Sen. Dan Laughlin of Erie, said in a telephone interview that if the bill gains traction, he would like to add an amendment that would allow the Pennsylvania Game Commission to have authority over Sunday hunting. Presently, the legislature votes on how many Sundays can be open to hunting.

“If the bill makes it to the Senate, I’m definitely amending Sunday hunting to that bill,” he said.

The senator wants hunters to be able to hunt more than the three Sundays that are presently in Pennsylvania’s regulations.

“The argument can be made that football and baseball are two sporting events, and sport hunting falls right in that category," he said. "You can’t make the argument (Sunday hunting) is not germane to the issue. I will get the Sunday hunting done one way or another.”

In addition to monitoring the house bill, Laughlin is also hopeful that Sunday hunting changes can be made through his own legislation, Senate Bill 607.

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The bill, which was introduced in 2021 by Laughlin and Sens. Devlin Robinson and Jim Brewster, would repeal provisions that prohibit hunting on Sunday.

If passed, the Pa. Game Commission would be able to decide which Sundays would be part of the various hunting seasons.

Hunting preserves issue

In another game matter, the legislature has also been asked to consider taking over the management of captive deer in hunting preserves over concerns involving Chronic Wasting Disease.

The National Deer Association is calling for authority over the state’s captive deer shooting facilities to be transferred from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to the Game Commission.

On April 11, the PGC created a chronic wasting disease management area and expanded two existing DMAs. The new DMA 7 was formed when CWD, a neurological disease that is fatal to deer, was detected at a captive deer facility in Lycoming County. The DMA represents the fifth of seven DMAs to be created because of CWD being found at a captive facility since 2012.

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Kip Adams, NDA’s chief conservation officer, said the deer farms that allow hunting have more movement of their deer over deer that are just raised in farms for breeding purposes. “Ultimately it would be great if the Game Commission could have authority over both, given the threat CWD has within these facilities and threat to wild deer,” he said in a telephone interview.

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He said the Department of Agriculture does a good job with captive deer that are in breeding facilities. However, in facilities that have hunting and movement of the animals, both dead and live, he believes the Game Commission makes more sense to regulate them.

“The Game Commission is better suited," he said. "The Game Commission has a law enforcement staff that can help enforce the rules.” He’s concerned the Department of Agriculture doesn’t have enforcement capabilities needed when you factor in the movement of deer that are taken by hunters who travel to captive deer facilities.

Travis Lau, communications director for the Game Commission, said through an email, “The Game Commission is agreeable to overseeing the state’s captive deer shooting facilities and the activity that occurs there. As the agency responsible for managing and protecting Pennsylvania’s wildlife resources, ensuring these facilities are compliant with the requirements of their permits, and that measures to combat the spread of chronic wasting disease are being employed consistently within facilities and outside them, ultimately affords the best protection to the Commonwealth’s wildlife and habitats.”

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Sen. Laughlin said it’s too early to weigh in on the NDA's proposal.

“I’m not sure where I am on that,” he said about trying to form an opinion on whether or not it’s a good move to transfer the authority to the PGC.

“You can obviously see that both ways. The whitetail deer is a wild animal that belongs to Pennsylvania and quite frankly, belongs to America. But when they are in a fenced in area, they are a farm animal," he said. "There’s certainly an argument to be made on either side of that issue. We need a little time to consider all the ramifications of any changes to this system and come up with what’s best.”

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Deer are moved on a regular basis into these facilities to be hunted and Adams is concerned a hunter may dispose of a carcass that may be infected with CWD in the wild where it may infect other deer. A dead deer with CWD, he said, can contaminate the soil it’s placed on for two years and infect other deer.

“The enforcement arm is such a big piece of this, and it helps make sure everyone is playing by the rules and doing everything possible to safeguard our wild deer resource,” Adams said about Game Commission’s abilities.

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on your website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on social media @whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: PA Sen. Dan Laughlin talks Sunday hunting, regulating captive deer