Tuesday, January 04, 2011

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: A Quick Survey of the Deer Wars

Where things stand:

In 2008, the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee of the state assembly was directed to study the Pennsylvania Game Commission's deer management program.

In 2009, they hired the Wildlife Management Institute as a consultant to perform the review.

In 2010, the Wildlife Management Institute completed their report. Click to view The Deer Management Program of the Pennsylvania Game Commission: a comprehensive review and evaluation.

Some of the legislators were not happy with aspects of the report. Some of these legislators admitted not knowing enough and wanting to learn more, but others made a series of tragically stupid comments and asserted fallacies as truths while berating biologists. A transcript is here.

And the third lawsuit by Unified Sportsman of Pennsylvania may be resolved later this year.
The Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania and the Game Commission may finally be headed toward a resolution of their long-running feud over deer management.

A source close to the case revealed that the discovery phase of the lawsuit the group filed in 2007 in Commonwealth Court against the agency has finally been completed.

And both sides - the Unified Sportsmen represented by attorney Charles Haws, of Barley Snyder LLC in Reading, and the commission, represented by the state Office of the Attorney General - have agreed to a Nov. 29 deadline for filing motions in the case.

A court date of 10 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2011, has been set in the event that the lawsuit is not decided before.

Official details about the lawsuit were hard to come by, but it was clear by this issue's deadline that efforts have been made to settle the case out of court. Although, a call to Haws' office went unreturned, and the Game Commission would release no information.

Source: Outdoors.com

Special thanks to a PA source.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

An update and a comment. The source you listed is probably not the best one to use, as they are not always reliable or accurate. It's a biased site as well.

As for the update, the lawsuit has been tossed out of court by the judge citing a lack of facts and that "the USP's position is merely a disagreement with the Commission's method in managing the deer herd. Sportsmen offered nothing to suggest the Commission based its Management Plan on fraud or bad faith or that the Commission's actions constitute capricious action or an abuse of discretion."

I would note that the Unified's club has less than 1% of the states hunters as members and they do not represent all sportsmen and women, despite their claims. Under oath they admitted to only around 2,500 members.

The entire court ruling, as well as some newspaper articles can be found here:
http://www.pabucks.com/deer-hunting-forum/viewtopic.php?t=7122&start=0