(Source: MIRS.news, Published 05/23/2024) Adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities would be able to hunt for sport with a licensed mentor under HB 5737, sponsored by Rep. Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck), which received testimony in the House Natural Resources, Environment, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee Thursday.
Children under the age of 10 years old are able to hunt with a “mentor,” or a licensed adult, and then apprentice-hunt for two years. However, for those who use up their mentorship and apprenticeship eligibility and then cannot pass a test to receive their own license can no longer hunt, supervised or not.
Mike Machar, a conservation officer for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), has two adult children with Down syndrome, one of whom is 22 and testified with him Thursday.
“Hunting is our life. Fishing is our life. That’s my fishing partner, my hunting partner. And for the last five years because he’s finished up with the mentor program that allowed him two years, he’s been excluded from hunting. So I’ve got to say to him every fall that ‘Bud, you can’t hunt this year because there isn’t a program for you,” Machar said.
Machar said parents come to him at hunter safety courses he teaches and it breaks his heart that their child can do everything but pass the written test, and it means they can’t hunt.
“I want to keep deer off our front bumpers, so I’m all for anything we can do to get more hunters in the woods,” said Rep. David Martin (R-Davison).
The bill was reported unanimously out of committee. Committee Chair Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) said the bill is moving quickly in order to make this provision available by the next hunting season.
Machar argued that there wouldn't be safety issues since the hunters being mentored would never hunt alone.
