2002 Survey Shows Wide Support For Deer Baiting

Should “yellow acorns” be legal?

With legislators considering two proposed law changes during the 2002 Georgia legislative session that would legalize baiting for deer, GON asked its readers to fill out and mail back to us a survey question on the baiting issue.

The number of responses was near a record-high for any GON survey or VOTES card. The results, though not a scientific poll, showed overwhelming support for the legalization of hunting deer over bait among people who filled out the survey and mailed it back to GON.

Statewide, out of 1,355 survey responses, 1,006, or 74 percent, said they don’t think baiting would harm the future of hunting, and that they would like to see baiting legalized in Georgia.

The support for baiting was much higher among hunters who said they deer hunted in a Southern Zone county, with 84 percent in favor of legalizing it. The count from the Southern Zone was 675 for baiting, only 127 against. Almost 60 percent of the survey responses came from Southern Zone hunters, despite most of Georgia’s population living and hunting in the Northern Zone. This could indicate that people in south Georgia are more interested and concerned with the baiting issue than hunters in the northern part of the state.

In the Northern Zone, support for the legalization of baiting for deer came in at 60 percent. Based on the surveys returned, two areas of north Georgia with noticeable support for baiting were Murray County and other mountain counties, and the Calhoun area.