There's been quite a bit of speculation and misinformation here and elsewhere about the PGC's position on deer contraceptives recently approved by the FDA known as GonaCon or GnRH

An article in the Feb 26 Pa Outdoor news page 3 clears up quite a bit........

Some direct quotes from that article...........

"GonaCon will never be used by the Game Commission so long as I am director" Carl Roe

"The agency very much prefers hunting to be used as a deer control mechanismon private and public land. GonaCon is not yet registered in our state, but if it is, it might be part of a deer-control plan submitted to the game commission by a private housing development in an urban area. They are going to have to pay for it but we need to have a plan to deal with it" Cal DuBrock

"Those guidelines would require that the municipality first exhaust all other options to reduce deer-humans conflicts including lethat and non lethal means before the agency would consider approving the use of GnRH" Carl Roe

Here's some of the the wording officially entered into the PGC policy manual......

"Where safe and appropriate, hunting always is the primary method used to manage wildlife populations in all environments"

"Fertility-control agents are only to be used in conjunction with hunting and other wildlife-management methods because contraception alone cannot reduce wildlife populationsto healthy or socially acceptable levels"


It's perfectly clear that the PGC is merely getting out in front of the inevitable and adopting a clear pre-emptive policy to always put hunting first.