Pa. hunting grounds restricted

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — As Pennsylvania’s two-week rifle deer season gets under way today Monday, some hunters, particularly in eastern Pennsylvania, say they no longer have access to their favorite stomping stamping grounds because private landowners are worried about liability.

Farmers and other landowners have either restricted hunting or banned it altogether, following after a recent jury verdict in Lehigh County in which a landowner was found partly liable for the accidental shooting of a pregnant woman by a hunter.

Brian Dietrich, 42, who runs a dairy farm and raises corn, soybeans and alfalfa, said he plans to limit hunting this year to close friends and family. In the past, he would allow almost everyone who asked to hunt on his land in northern Lehigh County.

“I have too much at stake, and too much of an investment, to have it compromised,” he said.

The clampdown stems from a lawsuit involving the near-fatal shooting of Casey Kantner, who was 18 when she was shot in the head as she sat in a car outside her home north of Allentown two years ago. Authorities say the shot was fired by a hunter from a 140-acre orchard near Kantner’s house.

Kantner, who survived, sued both the hunter, Craig Wetzel, and the landowner, Daniel Haas, for negligence. Kantner won her lawsuit Sept. 8, with a jury finding Wetzel 90 percent responsible for the shooting and Haas 10 percent responsible.

Although a second jury has yet to determine monetary damages, the verdict sent ripples through the hunting community.