I don't know how much a doe weighs, but Ramon Bell does.The president of the N.C. BowHunters Association thinks some of the objections to the deer hunt in Governors Club in Chatham County are unfounded.
There has not been a reported accident involving someone being shot by a bow and arrow for as long as the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has been keeping records, Bell said in an e-mail today.
"There have been bowhunting accidents," he wrote. "But these involve wounds inflicted upon one's self or a hunting partner due to careless handling of an arrow, not from shooting the arrow and mistakenly hitting another human being."
In fact today's story did report accident statistics from 2007-08 (36 accidents, eight of them fatal and all self-inflicted; six of those related to hunters falling out of tree stands. Only three accidents, none of them fatal, involved bows and arrows.)
Bell also objected to resident Lee Cheney's quote about the possibility of a 200-pound deer crashing into her yard after being shot by a bowhunter. Bell says whitetail does average 80 to 100 pounds.
"As for being liable for a deer coming onto the resident's property and doing damage ... The resident will not be liable if a deer comes onto their property, after being shot, and does any damage," he wrote. "This is why NCBA and Governors Club carries liability insurance. If that occurred, our liability insurance policy would cover damage to anyone's personal property."
I've asked Bell for an interview next week.
