It was the last Sunday and full weekend of hunting for deer hunters.
Michael Keddy, president of the Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia, said farmers across the province are worried about their own safety and their families.
“It’s really not about hunting on a holiday Sunday or any religious day. The issue for us is land owner rights. How much control over our own private land do we have? And as a group of land owners across the province we were almost 100-percent opposed to Sunday hunting,” said Keddy.
Keddy said they do not have the option of not going to work on Sunday.
“To be fair to the hunters, most of them are respectful and realize they’re not supposed to hunt on Christmas tree land and beside within a certain limit. But, there are always those people who aren’t respectful of the land owner rights.”
Keddy also worries about other land users.
“For example, my wife and her sisters, they take the dogs and they walk along the beautiful trail on our property almost every morning. Well, that just doesn’t happen during hunting season and it doesn’t happen this year on Sunday.”
Keddy questions whether lifting the ban for the first two Sundays of deer hunting season will open the door to more relaxed rules, ultimately putting the farmers and their families at risk.
“One of the disconcerting parts about this decision was that Halifax Metro wasn’t really opposed to Sunday hunting because it didn’t affect them. But when you polled rural Nova Scotia, 80 % were opposed, because it does affect us.”
The Department of Natural Resources lifted the ban on Sunday hunting for the first two Sundays of November. The department’s web site says hunting accidents in Nova Scotia are rare and almost never involve non-hunters.
