More Sunday hunting for Pa. earns approval of Senate panel, amid deer urine debate

A Pennsylvania Senate committee Tuesday narrowly backed a proposal already passed by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to open more Sundays for hunting.

The Senate Game & Fisheries Committee amended a portion of the proposal, House Bill 1431, that would permit hunters to use natural deer urine as an attractant. The amendment removes a testing requirement designed to ensure it’s free from Chronic Wasting Disease, which has been spreading in Pennsylvania.

Members of the Senate committee passed an identical bill, Senate Bill 67, with the same amendment related to deer urine testing.

If approved by the full Senate, HB 1431 as amended would require another vote by the House before going to Gov. Josh Shapiro to be signed potentially into law. SB 67 would need to be passed by the full Senate before consideration in the House.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission in 2020 began allowing hunting on three Sundays under legislation signed into law as Act 107 of 2019.

The Game Commission supports the intent of both bills now pending to fully repeal the state’s prohibition on Sunday hunting. It would then be up solely to the state Board of Game Commissioners to decide which Sundays are open to hunting.

“I think this is a giant step forward as far as the freedoms of Pennsylvanians,” SB 67 sponsor Sen. Daniel Laughlin, R-Erie, said during Tuesday’s committee meeting. “The ban on Sunday hunting has been in place since this was a colony … . I think it’s been roughly 300 years that you have not been allowed to have full access to going hunting on Sunday in Pennsylvania. So this is, I think, a pretty big watershed moment.”

HB 1431 is sponsored by state Rep. Mandy Steele, D-Allegheny.

Senators split their votes 6-5 to approve both proposals during Tuesday’s committee meeting.

North-central Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Chris Dush opposed the measures to expand Sunday hunting. Saying “traditions are being destroyed” and small businesses are being harmed, he compared it to the Game Commission’s decision in 2019 to move the start of the regular firearms season for white-tailed deer to the Saturday from the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Sen. Judith Schwank, D-Berks, also voiced opposition.

“Somebody has to speak for the people who like to walk in the woods, the bird-watchers, the folks who trail-ride, the people who talk to me as well about their grave concerns about opening this up without any restrictions — without restrictions where they weren’t brought to the table to discuss this,” she said.

During the debate of testing of deer-urine attractant, Sen. Lisa Boscola pushed back against arguments from committee staff that “the likelihood of spreading Chronic Wasting Disease through deer urine is extremely low, if any at all.”

“Says who?” asked Boscola, D-Lehigh/Northampton. “Not the Game Commission, because they’re concerned about the spread of” CWD “and having deer urine out there, I mean, that’s why they don’t allow it to begin with, to protect these areas, to protect us from further spread.”

CWD spreads through direct animal-to-animal contact, as well as indirectly through environments contaminated by the disease-causing agent, called a prion, according to the Game Commission. CWD-infected deer shed these prions through saliva, urine and feces. In addition, infected carcasses contribute to environmental contamination. Once in soil, CWD prions remain infectious for decades.

Boscola also likened the use of deer urine “to take, attracting or scouting wildlife,” as the bills’ language states, to the illegal practice of hunting over bait.

Laughlin countered her arguments by saying hunters would only use “a couple drops on your boots or whatever.”

“And, you know, CWD is already out in the wilds of Pennsylvania,” he said. “That’s why we have these maps where it shows where it’s active. I think it’s probably pretty similar to shutting the barn door after the horse is out.”

Additional elements of HB 1431 and SB 67 would require at least one member of the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners to represent agricultural interests and strengthen penalties for trespassing on private property.

Prior to the 2025-26 legislative session, legislation to expand Sunday hunting in Pennsylvania passed the House Game & Fisheries Committee but failed to become law.

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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.