Hell hath no fury like a 4th grader scorned.
A class of elementary school students at McVey Elementary School in Newark was behind a 2010 law dubbing the gray fox as Delaware’s state official wildlife animal.
Now just a few years later, lawmakers in Dover are trying to allow state environmental officials to create rules and regulations regarding the hunting and trapping of that same animal.
Delaware Public Media’s James Dawson tells us that in response, a new crop of 4th graders has taken up the gray fox cause:
Like most elementary school classrooms, maps and educational posters adorn the wall of Paul Sedacca’s 4th grade classroom, but his may be one of the few with a flow chart outlining the legislative process on a white board.
Sedacca’s class of eager kids has been following House Bill 25 since it appeared earlier this year.
The proposed legislation would allow the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to draw up regulations to control any hunting or trapping of the gray fox.
The fourth graders unanimously oppose the legislation, and they’re taking personally.
Gov. Jack Markell (D-Delaware) signed the bill naming the gray fox the state wildlife animal at McVey Elementary in front of the student body back in 2010 after students there pushed for that designation.
The animal isn’t endangered, though, and there is precedent for states harvesting official symbols – including in Delaware.
Several states list the white-tailed deer as their state animal, which is ubiquitously hunted throughout the country.
Fishermen use Delaware’s official marine animal, the horseshoe crab, as bait. Anglers are also allowed to hook the weakfish, the First Fish of Delaware.
Supporters say the bill is needed to help alleviate issues with those who accidentally shoot or trap a gray fox when they were aiming for a red fox, which is legal under Delaware law.
“What’s happening now is people don’t want to get in trouble by it, so what they’re doing is they’re basically shoot, shovel and shutting up. You know, they’re not telling us and if we could get some numbers then we would know, ” said Rep. Dave Wilson (R-Bridgeville), who sponsored the bill.
Wilson says these regulations would also allow DNREC to take an accurate count of the animal within Delaware’s borders.
One of the bill’s staunchest opponents, Rep. John Kowalko (D-Newark South), offered up two amendments during the House debate that would’ve nixed an open season on the animal and the fur trade clause.
Both of those failed.
Kowalko and others say the bill shouldn’t allow for hunting or pelt trade provisions if the goal is ultimately to take care of nuisance animals.
“When you want to deliberately construct a human attack on something in nature, then have a better reason than just to say, ‘Oh, we need this because we need it, or we need it to take a count, or we need it because an industry needs it to make more profit,” said Kowalko.
The bill now waits for a Senate committee hearing. Two amendments similar to Kowalko’s are attached to the bill.
That’s where Sedacca is hoping the bill dies.
“Our goal is to have the bill stop in the senate," said Sedacca. If it somehow passes the senate, our next deal will be to go to Dover and let the governor know that if he’s going to sign the bill, he’s going to have to deal with us.”
Markell says he will sign the bill as it currently stands.
McVey student Ben Garrett says that seems odd.
“I think he’s just insulting himself. Why would you do that? You signed the bill to make the gray fox the state [wildlife] animal [and] now you’re signing this bill to hunt the gray fox? I just don’t get it.," said Garrett.
But the students are open to some compromise. The bill also allows poultry farmers to kill the animal without a permit if it’s directly attacking their chickens.
Kids in the class mostly agreed with that provision, but some, like Cassidy Foskett, suggest there are other choices farmers can make.
“They can run out there and clap their hands and jump around and that’d probably scare it away because it’s a really shy animal,” said Foskett.
Sedacca says this civics lesson has been different from the one he taught five years ago, but just as valuable. Regardless of the outcome, he says he has further plans for his students.
“Let’s protect this animal. Furthermore let’s double down my friends," told his class. "How about this, if they want to build a shopping center and there’s a forest that has a population of gray foxes there should be a study done on the impact to the gray foxes there if they build a shopping center."
A similar bill introduced in 2014 would’ve instituted a similar hunting and trapping framework as House Bill 25, but the Senate amended those aspects out late last year.
That proposal never reached to the House for approval.
Should this bill pass, Sedacca says he’s prepared to bring the children to Dover to protest --- with parental permission.