58 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



Chapter II. 



Immediately following the signing of the Everett bill into 

 statute law, authorizing the killing of female deer, we sent 

 throughout the state of New York a press bulletin warning 

 all deer hunters of the danger of being killed, and warning 

 all parents against permitting their sons to endanger their 

 lives in deer hunting in the Adirondacks. Only a few editors 

 thought the warning of sufficient importance to justify its 

 use of space. 



It seemed to us perfectly clear 



(1) That the end of the war would bring to the North 

 Woods a greatly increased number of deer hunters, and 



(2) That the repeal of the buck law surely would lead 

 to many men-shooting fatalities. 



According to the carefully sought and carefully compiled 

 records of the Conservation Commission, during the six 

 open weeks of 1919 a total of approximately 60,000 men 

 and boys went deer hunting in the State of New York. A 

 very few hunted in the Catskills, the remainder in the 

 Adirondacks. 



The expected happened. 



Nine men were killed by being mistaken for deer, and 

 seven were wounded, but survived. 



During the season of 1918 two men were "killed for 

 deer" by men who admitted that they were hunting illegally, 

 and not specially looking for deer with antlers. 



At the hearings at Albany the doe-killers claimed that 

 under the Everett bill no more does than bucks would be 

 killed, and no more than were being killed each year in 

 defiance of the law. 



The total number of hunting licenses issued in New York 

 State in 1919 was about 200,000, or five full divisions of 

 men armed with the most deadly weapons for deer or men, 



