WEST VIRGINIA


Youth wants state to ban hunting of albino deer

By Lawrence Messina

The Associated Press


CHARLESTON - Jared Stiltner likes to hunt. The 11-year-old bagged a doe during last fall's youth antlerless deer hunt.

But a discovery in the woods near his rural Wyoming County home in the spring has him asking West Virginia lawmakers to draw a line on killing albino deer.

"It just seems wrong to kill something so rare," Stiltner told lawmakers in a letter distributed Thursday in the House of Delegates.

Game experts estimate that between one in 10,000 and one in 100,000 deer are albino.

Stiltner's cause prompted Thursday's introduction of House Bill 2959. Bill co-sponsors include his cousin, House Majority Leader Rick Staton; House Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh; and House Judiciary Chairman Jon Amores, D-Kanawha.

"I think it's a really good bill," said Staton, D-Wyoming. "The letter that he wrote was very heartfelt. He was very affected by seeing this."

In his letter, Stiltner explained that the lack of melanin, which gives skin its color, leaves albino deer with weak eyes and ears. Without natural camouflage, the animals are more vulnerable to hunters and other predators, Stiltner learned.

"I just decided, why not try to make a law?" said Stiltner, who was on hand for the bill's introduction as a House page.

West Virginia hunting laws do not address albino deer. Thirteen other states have passed laws protecting them.

The bill would make it a crime to hunt, trap, shoot, possess or attempt to kill an albino deer.

The state Division of Natural Resources has not taken a stand on the issue, but Curtis Taylor, chief of the agency's wildlife resources section, said: "There's no biological reason to prohibit the killing of an albino deer, and no reason within deer management." He said albino deer could be confused with piebald, or partially white, deer.

I dont see why hunting albino deer would be bad. people hunt albino squirrels, fox, coon, crow and everything else under the sun, why not deer. sure, they are rare, but they are a genentically infereor deer. if we allow these deer to be saved while others are being hunted, then in who knows how many years we'll have white deer that you can see from a mile away, who cant see well, and who also probably have other bad traits. to me its like letting a deer with a hereditary sickness walk during season, if it survives long enough to reproduce then we have other deer with that sickness and soon more. so i say we dont stop the hunting of albino deer.

just my opinion though.

I think that they are protected here in Michigan but I dont see why we cant harvest them. I don't really care about the rareness of them. They have bad traits. Lots of things are rare. I just seen a cat on the news with 2 faces. lol.

Just my $0.02, but I don't think there should be a ban on inferior
animals, because a child likes them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Start with
these and there will be more bans.

Agree'd. Start here and who knows what else gets banned down the road. Bob2003 where in WV are you from. I hunted in Horner 2 years ago, got family in Clarksburg and Fairmont.

Bills are introduced all the time that sponsors know very well that they will never get through anyhow but do it to make the originator feel good. Sounds like this is such a case.

Can't help but add a thought on the Albino Deer bill. I've been a Hunter for 37 years, and Hunting has always been to me a privilege. To honor nature and the land first. Sometimes Nature comes along for whatever reason and creates a very rare gift of beauty, even of historical reverence by the Native Americans like a white deer for eons. So rare I,ve seen only one white deer in 47 years, and a hunter left his huge thousand acre property to bait and kill it on someone elses land to stuff it for show and tell.(this was a white deer, not albino) Hunters all ready have a bad rap, lets clean up our reputations in the little things..

West Virginia hunting laws do not address albino deer. Thirteen other states have passed laws protecting them.

The bill would make it a crime to hunt, trap, shoot, possess or attempt to kill an albino deer.




IL.is one of the 13, piebald is legal to take.

Albino deer are protected in Michigan, and have been for the past 12-15 years. Interesting thing though, in all states I am aware of, the bills to protect them have been introduced and sponsored by legislators who hunt, with fairly wide hunter support. Another of those abmormal hunter traits that make wildlife managers tear their hair out.

Albino deer are protected in Michigan, and have been for the past 12-15 years. Interesting thing though, in all states I am aware of, the bills to protect them have been introduced and sponsored by legislators who hunt, with fairly wide hunter support. Another of those abmormal hunter traits that make wildlife managers tear their hair out especially when the hunters want wildlife management decisions based upon "science."