August 22, 2017: The Town of Huntington has proposed guidelines to Town Code for bow hunters. However, these guidelines/revisions cannot be enforced. Several Asharoken/Eaton’s Neck residents met with Councilwoman Tracey Edwards in May, and although Supervisor Petrone and she stated at town meetings that this was an "experiment" and that they would work with us to make it safer, Edwards admitted at our meeting in May that none of her proposals would be enforceable because only the DEC can regulate hunting. The hunters all know this. Therefore, the code revisions have no validity. The only way a town or village can regulate hunting is by not allowing it at all and declaring the bow and arrow a weapon. Huntington Bay, Northport, Head of the Harbor, and Port Jefferson are villages that have done just that. In fact, Head of the Harbor has just announced that they are going to dart the deer with birth control. The link below is a post on the Town of Huntington website: http://www.huntingtonny.gov/news/?FeedID=2600 Almost immediately after the TOH meeting on August 15, the deer hunting code revisions above were posted on the Hunters for Deer Facebook page. Why were the hunters given a delineated list of the guidelines (see TOH Guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/141205732877785/photos/pcb.552656788399342/552656465066041/?type=3&theater) while only a brief summary was posted on the TOH website? Who is the TOH catering to, the hunters or town residents? A TOH public hearing will be held on September 19. However, we, the residents, don’t understand why a hearing is needed for code revisions that are unenforceable. The residents of the TOH are the ones who are suffering. Deer hunting by bow and arrow is simply poor public policy. There is no expense to the town. The expense is all to us. Bow hunting will once again be affecting our quality of life and our day-to day safety from October 1, 2017 to January 31, 2018. And most importantly, it is not working!! There are just as many deer, if not more this year. Hunters have admitted publicly that they could bow hunt year after year and never make a dent in the overpopulation of the deer. Please contact Supervisor Petrone (fpetrone@huntingtonny.gov) and Councilwoman Tracey Edwards (tedwards@huntingtonny.gov) and urge them again, this year, to declare the bow and arrow a weapon so that this dangerous practice can be stopped in Huntington’s residential areas and alternative methods of thinning the deer herds can be explored.