explorer_Jack

I been hearing that the PGC was started to protect all animals and not the ones we hunt. Why in the world would they be the PGC if that was the case? Think about it?
Pennsylvania GAME Commission. So the PGC was started to protect game animals only from the meaning of their name. When did WCOs become part of the PGC? Now if you are a PGC,You do work for us hunters who buys a hunting license to hunt game. Get rid of the WCOs and tell them to get their own money else where and stop useing the hunters funded fo game animals monies.PGC Pennsylvania GAME Commission. Not Pennsylvania wildlife commission. I believe with that name it was intended to protect only the game animals that was being hunted to extinction. Think about it,Did people hunt rats or owls or hawksor themajority of birds we see every day as a game animal? Not a chance.PGC was put in place to protect just the game animals and not every animal in PA.

WCO R.W.J

Actually there was believe it or not a lot of hunting of songbirds by recent immigrants and in fact one of the first laws enacted was no Immigrant could own a firearm.

1895 - June 25 - Game Commissioners authorized to appoint 10 game protectors.

1903 - April 11 -- Game Commissioners authorized to appoint "deputy game protectors." Seven appointed immediately. There were 30 by year's end.

I know this is a touchy subject here but the fact remains we are Wildlife Conservation Officers and they changed our title in the 80's from Game Protectors to reflect the true aspect of our duties. That being said I am here to protect all wildlife. I work for the wildlife and hunters as well as all the people of the Commomwealth. but for the PGC the main focus should always be wildlife and its habitat. The vast majority of residents dont realize that the Hunters have been footing the bill for all of the Wildlife in PA.

Here is Conservation History time table for PA.

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=458&q=153947

sproulman

owls got 3 of my rabbits this week[:@]

now they are hooting getting ready to make a dozen more little rabbit killers.

there is very few rabbits in woods here in clinton county.

so, every feb 8 owls or more come to my yard.

they sit all night hooting ,killing every rabbit they can.

why cant the PGC allow us too shoot them like they are doing to our doe.

I HATE OWLS.[:@]

WCO R.W.J

Sproul,

Owls and hawks are federally protected and State Law cant overide Federal law.

Here is a list of protected birds under the Migratory bird treaty act,

http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/intrnltr/mbta/mbtandx.html

blkpowder

If anyone would like to open their minds and learn a little history about our PGC,please read.


"In 1890, the game had practically disappeared from our state. "We had but few game laws and those were supposed to be enforced by township constables, most of whom were politicians willing to trade with their friends the lives of our beasts and birds in exchange for votes." That year, Phillips and other sportsmen formed the Pennsylvania Sportsmen's Association to press for government protection of the state's disappearing wildlife. In 1895, the Pennsylvania Game Commission was born.

Elected governor in 1902, Samuel Pennypacker supported Progressive era reforms...
Two years later the General Assembly approved a new package of game laws to protect endangered populations of deer, waterfowl and other game birds. The Commission then appointed the state's first game protectors and empowered constables to start enforcing those laws. This was no easy task, for according to Game Commissioner Joseph Kalbus, Pennsylvania's hunters, "appeared to think they had... an inherent right to destroy game and birds at pleasure." Pennsylvanians, like other Americans, resisted state efforts to limit a hunter's right to use his gun. Regulating hunting was "a bloody process" in which fourteen game protection agents were shot at and three killed in 1906 alone. [/align][/align]
To restore the populations of valuable wildlife, Governor Samuel Pennypacker authorized the establishment of "game preserves" in the state forests for the protection of deer, wild turkey, grouse, woodcock andnon gameanimals in 1905. On 2,000 acres in the Young Women's Creek Reserve in Clinton -- the first forest lands purchased by the Commonwealth back in 1898 -- the Game Commission set up its first game preserve. By 1910, the Game Commission was winning praise across the nation for its restocking and management of the state's growing deer herd. To fund more preserves, the Commission asked the state legislature to pass a law requiring each hunter to pay a dollar for a license to hunt, a measure that the state's sportsmen bitterly opposed. Passed in 1913, the Resident Hunter's License Law provided the Commonwealth money to purchase and maintain its public game preserves, to protect endangered wildlife and to restore species native to the state. Credit: Pennsylvania State Archives
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germain

These adays the name could be changed.Maybe PA wildlife agency.Sorta has a ring to it.