HARRISBURG -- The Pennsylvania Game Commission will meet in emergency session to outlaw the use of zucchini and other types of squash in the upcoming bear hunting season.
The action comes after a Montana woman chased off a bear that had attacked one of her dogs by throwing a zucchini at the animal's head. Almost immediately, hunting message boards lit up with suggestions on the best size and throwing techniques to use to bring down one of Pennsylvania's estimated 17,000 bears.
"We know a lot of guys are frustrated when they don't harvest a bear," Game Commission Dan Feeser said today. "But this is not the way to go. You're more likely to simply wound a bear with a zucchini instead of kill it. Even if you follow up with a pumpkin, you're just going to piss him off. We strongly recommend the use of ammo, and lots of it."
Local hunter Bill Cross doesn't think much of the Game Commission's ban. "This is a group [the Game Commission] that approved atlatls," Cross said. Atlatls are an ancient hunting weapon used by Neanderthals to hunt wooly mammoths. "Basically, that's a board with a spike in it. Those we're allowed to fling, but you can't let a zucchini fly? It's crazy."
"Maybe we'd get some vegetarians involved in hunting if they could use zucchinis," Cross says. "Well, maybe not vegetarians so much. But maybe some of those folks who want to go green with everything."
