Dec 4, 2014 2 min read

If hunting is to be considered sport, then fairness is a primary consideration.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission filed charges against an Allegheny County couple last month for what might be considered the trifecta of unfairness. The poachers are accused of shooting a nine-point buck from their vehicle in Washington Cemetery with a crossbow. The deer in the cemetery are nearly tame as they are accustomed to being fed by cemetery visitors. The poachers used bread to lure the deer that was killed.

That’s hardly sport; it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

True sportsmen were appalled by that incident and may have had a similar reaction to a photo appearing on the front page of this newspaper on Tuesday, showing a “hunter” with rifle scanning the countryside from a perch a good 30 feet in the air, courtesy of a bucket truck. Why trudge through the woods only to risk injury by scrambling up bark to a tree stand when you might simply gain the advantage of height over your prey with a machine typically used to reach utility lines and street lights?

Not only is this technique unfair; it is illegal. The Game Commission’s regulations state: “It is unlawful to 1) hunt from a vehicle; 2) shoot at wildlife on a public road or right-of-way open to public travel; 3) shoot across a road unless the line of fire is high enough to preclude any danger to road users; and 4) alight from a vehicle and shoot at any wildlife until the shooter is at least 25 yards from the traveled portion of the roadway.”

As it turned out, that was no “hunter” in the bucket truck at all. No human, either. Wildlife Conservation Officer Rich Joyce responded Monday to a complaint about the incident in East Finley Township. “I started yelling up there and felt pretty silly when I realized I was talking to a mannequin,” Joyce said.

It was all a joke, clever enough to have fooled our photographer. Joyce hopes no one thinks hunting in such a way is OK. Violators won’t be laughing when he slaps them with a stiff fine.