ALLEN COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - It's a time that many look forward to every year and get up and out before dawn.
Ohio's gun deer hunting season opened this morning. Hunters in Allen County have the opportunity to get 3 deer and a total of 6 if hunting in other parts of the state. Those animals harvested must be checked by noon the next day or by 11:30 p.m. if harvested on the last day of the season. The Ohio Department of Wildlife is also requiring deer harvested in Wyandot, Marion, and Hardin Counties to have those animals tested for chronic wasting disease before ingesting the meat.
"Submit it to us and they'll look at the lymph nodes to see if the deer is positive. And you definitely don't want to hunt sick deer. If you see a deer, don't shoot something that looks like it's sick but also make sure that if you do test your deer for CWD that it comes back negative before you ingest that meat just to be safe," said Abby Ditomassi, communication specialist with the Ohio Department of Wildlife.
Hunters must be licensed and are strongly encouraged to wear an orange or camo-orange chest vest, treat every weapon as a loaded weapon, know the surroundings they are shooting into, and hunt on public grounds unless they have written permission to be on private land.
