43
Cold-weather protest, indoor protestations flare Monday regarding Vienna hunting preserve
VIENNA
An hour of sign-waving and chanting protesters standing out in the cold was followed by more conservative demonstrations inside the Vienna Township hall by township residents – all over the captive hunting preserve planned for the former Candywood Golf Course on Scoville North Road.
About 100 animal-rights activists held signs and chanted with messages such as “killing for profits” and “dying for a pathetic person’s ego” in front of the hall.
Among them was Holly Justice of Youngstown, who organized Monday’s protest and publicized the application while it was pending with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
The division approved the license Friday, and the Ohio Department of Agriculture also is expected to approve a permit.
The application says Candywood Whitetail Ranch LLC and Anthony J. Candella Jr. plan to have hunts for white-tailed deer, elk, fallow deer, red deer, rams, sheep, hogs, buffalo, Barbary sheep, red deer hinds (females) and blackbuck antelope. They are expected to have an annual season from August through January.
Across the parking lot from the protesters were about eight men standing by a sign reading “Yes for Candywood” who said they have experience with hunting preserves and support them.
Among them was Mark Thompson of West Middlesex, Pa., in Mercer County, who said he is the father-in-law of Candella’s business partner and the owner of a Cortland deer farm.
Thompson said the myriad safety concerns raised by Justice and others are unnecessary because of the tight control exercised by owners of such facilities. He said there are scores of them in Ohio and accidents are rare.
The hunting typically takes place in tree stands, meaning the hunters are shooting down, not horizontally in a way that would allow bullets to travel outside the preserve.
The ranch is 271 acres, hunters would always be accompanied by a guide, and no hunter will be able to load the gun with ammunition unless he or she is properly located in a tree stand, Thompson said.
Another allegation by Justice and other protesters is that this type of hunting, which is done inside a fence and involves animals raised by humans, is cruel and not sporting because the animals cannot escape.
“It’s not going to be like a thousand deer out there,” Thompson said. Typically there are only a couple of people hunting at a time, he said.
Thompson carried his safety message inside the township hall, where he told about 50 people that the tree stands where the hunting would take place would only be located away from state Route 82 and the clubhouse along Scoville North Road, as a way to keep the hunters away from nearby homes.
During the public-comment part of the meeting, Bruce Geilhard of Vienna said his concern was “about my grandsons getting shot.” The boys live with Geilhard’s son adjacent to the course.
He wanted to know if there was anything the township trustees could do to stop the preserve. Trustees Phil Pegg and Heidi Brown said there is not.
Much like injection wells in the township, the state has regulatory control over the licensing, Pegg said. But licensing for hunting preserves is even more secret than injection wells because the state has no obligation to tell the public anything about hunting preserves before licensing, Brown said.
There would be no way to stop the preserve based on zoning issues because it would be in an agricultural zone and that can be located anywhere in Ohio where at least 5 acres are available, the trustees said.
John Aiken, whose home is adjacent to the course, said it doesn’t seem right that a golf course “that is meant to be in residential area” can be turned into a hunting area in an agricultural district. He is starting a committee of property owners who will research the possibility of fighting the preserve in court.
“I never thought I’d see the day when that beautiful, pristine land would be turned into a slaughterhouse,” Vienna resident Ed Crepage said.
“Nobody wants to live across from a killing field,” said protester Linda Fabrizio.