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Penalizing Poachers: New Penn. Proposal

By Deborah Weisberg, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Penn. - While state lawmakers prepare to again tackle tough new penalties for wildlife violators, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is honing its ability to seek restitution from poachers.

Although separate, the two initiatives aim for the same goal: to crack down on black marketeers, thrill-killers and others who take deer, elk, bears and other wild game illegally.

In recent weeks, the game commission charged six men in four separate incidents of poaching. If convicted, though, even the worst offender -- a man who allegedly poached 23 deer over 16 years -- could not be sent to prison because there is no provision for incarceration in the Pennsylvania Game Code.

That would change if a measure introduced by Rep. Ed Staback (D-Lackawanna/Wayne), gets passed by the full legislature. HB 97 would bump most summary offenses to misdemeanors or felonies, and provide for imprisonment and harsher fines. It is a rewrite of a bill that never made it out of Staback's committee last year, because some organizations opposed language that would have allowed the commission to permanently confiscate violators' firearms and other property.

"I think some people took the language out of context," Staback said. "But rather than stall the bill, I decided to have it deal only with fines and offenses. Forfeiture will be dealt with down the road, when we get this bill out of the way."

Kim Stolfer, legislative liaison of the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League, was one of the most ardent forfeiture critics. While he supports tougher penalties, he said it is up to the courts to make them work.

"They need to get serious about putting these people away," said Stolfer. "But we don't always see prosecutors and judges enforce penalties in crimes against people, let alone wildlife. The power still ultimately rests with them."

HB 97 targets serial offenders and those who jacklight, kill out of season, or exceed the bag limit. Two violations in a decade would constitute a felony, as would killing five big game animals in one incident.

"The minimum fine would be $10,000, loss of your hunting license, and up to three years jail time," said Staback. "The commercial guys who come here to kill may consider fines part of the cost of doing business, but jail time will get them excited. Jail time will make poaching a whole new ballgame."

Under the current Game Code, the vast majority of crimes, including repeat violations, are summary offenses that carry as much weight as a speeding ticket.

"You could shoot every deer in Pennsylvania and you'd never go to jail," said the Game Commission's chief law enforcement officer Rich Palmer. "We're way behind other states in our penalties against poachers."

Ohio recently sentenced two men convicted of poaching trophy bucks to jail time, more than $1,156 in fines, electronic home monitoring, community service work, and loss of hunting privileges.

Ohio wildlife officials also assessed the men $13,277 for the dead deer. The Buckeye State increased its restitution fees last year.

If the incident had occurred in Pennsylvania, the poachers would have paid no replacement costs under the Game Code, which can seek reimbursement only for threatened and endangered species and elk and black bears. It also gives judges broad leeway in assigning values to those animals.

The Game Commission is now proposing restitution for all species, based on fixed rather than sliding fees. Approval is expected at the quarterly board meeting in April.

Under the proposal, the fine for illegally killing a non-trophy elk or bear would be $1,500, deer $800, bobcat or otter $500, turkey or beaver $300 and all other game species, including rabbits and squirrels, $200.

Based on Pennsylvania Big Game Records Program sizes, illegally killing a black bear over 350 pounds field-dressed would cost $5,000, as would a trophy deer or elk and any threatened and endangered species.

"We took into account how much it would cost us to replace an animal, as well as how much a person might pay to bag a trophy buck, say, at a high-fence hunting compound," said Palmer. "We looked at the intrinsic loss of social value, as well as animal genetics. We also considered other states' restitution programs and took a middle-of-the-road approach."

Legislation that would enroll Pennsylvania in the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact also may be introduced this year. The majority of states have joined the compact, which enables wildlife management agencies to ban poachers found guilty in one member state from hunting in other member states.

Rep. Marc Gergely (D-White Oak) introduced Compact legislation last year, but it failed to receive action. He plans to introduce a similar measure, saying the commission's electronic license sales system makes this a good year to revisit the proposal.

"The electronic system makes background checks and information sharing more readily available to law enforcement," Gergely said. "The trend nationwide is to join the compact. We have the second highest number of hunting licensees in the country, so we should be part of it."