by Kiley Blackman
Several years ago, Animal Defenders of Westchester started looking into the massive pro-hunting push by the NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation. We recently decided to confront this issue head-on by forming a team of humane advocates and wildlife rehabilitators. This team consisted of members of Wildlife Watch, the League of Humane Voters, the Swan Squad, NY4Wildlife, the Lights Out Coalition, Humane Long Island, and Animal Defenders of Westchester. The impetus was the absolutely needless, brutal killing by the DEC of Peanut and Fred, two animals who lived their entire lives in an upstate rescue.
Some items we discussed with DEC reps were the annual DEC-managed pheasant hunt, where baby birds are hand-raised by volunteers, then released in what is essentially a canned hunt. The DEC refers to it as a ‘training tool for future hunters. Yet, the need for the DEC to patrol and fine violators who dump fishing trash in public parks, leaving hooks and monofilament line to injure and kill birds and other wildlife is without concern. My goal is to get a non-hunter on the DEC advisory board, an issue that’s being fought all over the country. This was the first of what will be ongoing meetings with the DEC.
During this time, the NYS Legislature almost unanimously approved a Crossbow Bill that was immediately signed by Governor Hochul. Not long before that, the Governor had vetoed a Wildlife Crossing Bill that would have saved people and animals from car collisions! The Crossbow Bill, a particularly brutal weapon, denounced by many ‘traditional’ hunters, expands hunting into Westchester and Long Island and was authored by Senator Peter Harckham, who also presents himself as an animal lover. We called on Sen. Harckham to “act like the people’s representatives and not just a de facto extension of the DEC.” See my letter on Page 7 at this link: https://yonkerstimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/westchester-oct-31lr.pdf
There is a new NYS ‘mentoring’ bill, S1153, designed to lower the hunting age to ten years old! It states, “As the number of hunters in NYS has significantly declined, we must find new ways of connecting interested people with experienced hunters.” (Bold mine). Even the ‘revered’ NPR got into the act, bemoaning the decline as a ‘crisis for protecting wildlife’!!
We encourage animal advocates to not let politicians and the public scapegoat deer with the ‘deer eating trees and plants’ nonsense or for any other reason: We destroy forests and plants; the entire NY state was ‘trees and plants – till we destroyed them…and will keep destroying them every time we want more housing – or yet another shopping mall: There are several hundred ‘ghost malls’ – abandoned malls in the U.S. that ‘destroyed trees and plants,’ including in Yonkers, NY, where almost 90 acres of trees and plants were destroyed to make a new mall – despite there being another one a mile away! And please, don’t let anyone refer to the hunting of any animals euphemistically as “harvesting,” “taking,” “managing,” “culling,” etc.
PLS NOTE: After the enactment of the Crossbow Bill, we learned that Somers, NY, had opted out of this disgrace, saying, “We’re allowed to have our own rules and right now this (hunting) program doesn’t allow crossbows.”
https://news.halstonmedia.com/yorktown-news/stories/somers-upholds-crossbow-ban-at-angle-fly,43406
In early October we reached out to Westchester County Executive, Ken Jenkins, to request he opt out of this bill in Westchester also, stating it “poses serious and avoidable liability, safety and related issues;” Jenkins has promised to look into it. Pls take a moment to contact CE Jenkins and politely request he follow Somers’ lead by opting out of this cruel, needless bill:
Animal advocacy is a long race, not a short one; thank you for staying in this exhausting yet rewarding race!
Kiley Blackman, Founder