Hunting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Among the 1993 hunting victims
werePansy Gordon, 55, of Alexander, West
Virginia, shot by her husband Jule on
November 27 as she drove a deer toward him;
Brandon Smith, age six, who was killed in
the family kitchen November 28 when his 12-
year-old brother shot him point-blank while
practicing quickly loading and aiming his sin-
gle-shot rifle, using Brandon as a target;
Travis Philips, 16, of Metairie, Louisiana,
who was hunting squirrels from a flatboat in
the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge on
November 29 when Daniel Thompson, 23, of
Bogalusa mistook him for a black hog; an
unidentified 39-year-old woman in Fayette
County, Pennsylvania, on November 29; an
11-year-old girl in Walton County, Georgia,

who was shot through the neck in her own
bedroom November 30 when her 14-year-old
brother’s rifle caught on his clothing as he tried
to take it off his back; John Taggard, 54, of
New City, New York, who tripped over his
shotgun December 4; Jay Barrett, of Spring
Hill, Florida, who tripped over his rifle near
Conesville, New York, on December 4; Cecil
Crook, 37, of Lancaster, Ohio, who shot
himself December 6 while trying to drag his
shotgun into a tree stand with a fishing line;
Kelvin Davis, 31, of DuPont, Ohio, who was
mistaken for a deer while participating in a
deer drive; and Gary Bellew, who on
December 19 took his 9-year-old son to a
canned hunt at the Moffit Ranch, north of San
Antonio, Texas. Showing off, he tried to feed
and pet an 800-pound antelope––possibly the
target––and was fatally gored. The son called
police and unsuccessfully applied a tourniquet.
Two hunters were murdered in
northern Florida: Don Hill, 63, shot in the
back and head at the Osceola National Forest
on November 20, and Gregory Allen Wood,
35, shot the same way November 25 near
Camp Blanding. There are no suspects.
Deer overpopulation continued to
make headlines in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
Indiana even after the end of hunting season,
as special hunts held to thin park herds drew
heavy protest. The Pennsylvania SPCA issued
a strong critique of state deer management
policies that promote fast propagation. The
Coalition of Hoosiers Encouraging Ethical
Treatment of Animals drew national TV cov-
erage on December 4, after 24 members con-
fronted 458 hunters at Brown County State
Park, near Nashville, Indiana. CHEETA put
the park deer population at 800; the Indiana
Department of Natural Resources said it was
1,000 a year earlier, and had doubled. The
day-long hunt killed 392 deer, most of whom
had worn teeth from eating tree bark and were
at least 20% underweight. In Ohio, Ritchie
Laymon of Protect Our Earth’s Treasures
scrambled to find out what Robin Rudabaugh
of Hartville plans to do with up to 300 deer he
is capturing at Sharon Woods Metro Park in
northwestern Columbus, from a resident herd
of about 850. Rudabaugh, who has claimed
he wants to backbreed the deer to recover the
type found by the first European settlers, is
associated with the Noah’s Ark Preserve, of
Jackson, Ohio––a roadside zoo that a 1989
USDA inspection found to be in multiple vio-
lation of the Animal Welfare Act. Rudabaugh
expects losses in relocation of up to 25%.
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