ORIGINAL: the outsider
Hunters’ overall satisfaction with hunting in Pennsylvania is quite positive: 79% were very
or somewhat satisfied with their hunting experiences in Pennsylvania over the past 2 years
In this survey, what percentage were very satisfied and what percentage were somewhat satisfied? The text above the numbers says percentage. The numbers for each species add up to more than 100. Am I missing something? How many responded to the survey? And no, I didn't read all 345 pages of the report.
How was their hunting experiencesatisfaction measured? Amount of game harvested? Game seen? Comraderie? Amount of land available to hunt? Other factors?
First of all the survey was not conducted by the Game Commission, it was conducted by Responsive Management who do surveys of all kinds of things all over the nation. It was also a survey that polled various citizens of the Commonwealth.
It also appears that some people either didn’t understand how the data was formatted or once again simply misrepresenting what the data showed. So I will put the data in a more simplistic form for those that couldn’t understand it.
Part of the poll was species specific and here are the hunting/trapping satisfaction rates by species. Percentages don’t add up to 100% most likely because of some people not responding or havingno comment on that species.
Species………………Very-Somewhat satisfied……………………Somewhat -Very dissatisfied
Whitetail deer………………..70 %………………………………............. ...24 %
Wild turkey…………………..90 %………………………………............. ... 6 %
Black bear……………………81 %………………………………............. ....8 %
Cottontail rabbit……………..65 %………………………………............. ....24 %
Snowshoe hare………………53 %………………………………............. ....41 %
Squirrel………………………90 %………………………………............. .....4 %
Ruffed grouse……………….66 %………………………………............. .....26 %
Bobwhite quail………………67 %………………………………............. ....22 %
Pheasant……………………..57 %………………………………............. ....34 %
Woodchuck………………….87 %………………………………............. ......7 %
Crow…………………………94 %………………………………............. ......2 %
Fox…………………………..85 %………………………………............. .......5 %
Coyote……………………….87 %………………………………............. .......4 %
Mink…………………………86 %………………………………............. .......5 %
Beaver……………………….80 %………………………………............. ......10 %
For deer 32 % were very satisfied while 10 % were very dissatisfied.
The bottom line is that this independently and scientifically conducted poll done by professional pollsters showed that only 24% of the hunters indicted they were even somewhat dissatisfied with their deer hunting experiences. That doesn’t seem to fit this nonsense about the majority of the hunters being dissatisfied. Of course there might be some more recent polls that would show some change in that result.
As I said previously I will see if I can find a more recent survey or poll. I do know that the last data I have seen shows an increase in support from a poll take before or early in the antler restrictions to the a more recent poll. I don’t know that poll included anything more then about antler restrictions or not but I will see what I can find when I get the time.
R.S. Bodenhorn