ORIGINAL: sproulman
ORIGINAL: the outsider
Schuylkill County WCO Kevin Clouser is investigating a case in which three deer were shot with a small-caliber rifle and dumped at Kellner's Dam in Tamaqua. Clouser said he also has received reports of illegal deer shooting behind Tamaqua High School, at State Game Lands 222 in Walker Township and around Tuscarora State Park.
''I think there's quite a bit of shooting going on,'' Clouser said.
So do I. Much more than most people suspect.
in around schools or parks, they are using CROSSBOWS.
i think i heard at 1 park in centre or sulliavan county, they found over 21 arrows in grass after cutting it.
the only way this is going to stop is if the WCO is put on SALARY with no hours and days off.
this way he can be out there 10pm to 4 am and catch these poachers.
where i work, they put us all on SALARY.
they make us come out at night and on weekends, no overtime.
once they know the WCO is out at night reguarly and weekends, it will get reduced a lot.
right now, no one even sees a WCO here in clinton county,daylight or nightime.
so, poaching continues.
poachers hit hyner,pa this year and got some real wall hangers.
i believe that its same ones that cut heads off 5 bucks in rt144 near beech creek/swamp branch road,cant prove it but just what you hear going around.[:@]
They can’t put the WCOs on salary because the Federal Government ruled, in the Garcia Decision back in 1985, that all state and local governments have to pay time and a half for any work over 40 hours. There is no way the Game Commission could afford to pay that much overtime so they had to cut the hours that WCOs worked to only 40 hours with some very limited over time hours on top of that.
You are correct though that the poachers know we aren’t out there. I see them all the time driving past and checking to see if my state vehicle is here or not.
The real big change in enforcement has come from the decline in the deputy program over the past years though. Back when we had a larger more active deputy force they were the ones that caught most of the poachers. Even though most people don’t know it the deputies always were the real meat of the Game Commission’s law enforcement program. They were out there catching the poachers after the WCO spent all day taking care of the normal day to day business of the district, such as the wildlife complaints, school programs, hearings and normal after the fact investigations.
The deputies then were out there at night doing preventive law enforcement and catching the real poachers. But, over the years a lot of knot heads and politician launched attacks on the deputies and the entire deputy program. That resulted in many deputies quitting, more training for deputies and in general it got to the point where it is very hard to find deputies that are willing to go through all of the required hoops they have to go through just to do a thankless nearly volunteer job as a deputy today.
I have said all along that with the decline of the deputy program there would also be a decline in the protection of our resources. But, that is what many of the hunters and politicians of this state demanded, so now they will just have to live with the results of their demands.
R.S. Bodenhorn