PGC Advocates Deer Slaughter

Just when you think the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) could not dream up anything else to upset Pennsylvania sportsmen, it comes up with another program that does just that. It calls the program “Fill an Antlerless Tag for the Future.” It advocates that hunters try to fill as many antlerless deer tags as possible. I guess the PGC wants a future without deer.

I was first alerted to this campaign by sportsmen’s advocate Greg Levengood of Boyertown. Levengood has worked assiduously to combat PGC policies that are detrimental to sportsmen and has witnessed the commission’s doing many things that slap sportsmen in the face. Despite his experiences, I think even he was shocked by the commission’s new antlerless deer-slaughter promotion.

The PGC issued 1.09 million antlerless deer tags for the 2023-2024 deer seasons. This does not count the many DMAP tags, including ones for use on public lands. In its advertisement promoting the fill-the-tag program, the PGC’s ad reads, “Pennsylvania hunters have purchased more than one million antlerless deer tags. Now, we want to see you filling those tags.” As part of this campaign, the commission is even conducting a “2023 Fill a Tag for the Future” photo contest of harvested antlerless deer.

The ad suggests the commission is upset that 85 percent of PA’s deer hunters harvest no deer or only one per season. Its next statistic is that only 35 percent fill one or two tags during a season and that 67 percent do not fill antlerless licenses. At the same time, the commission claims a 2022-2023 harvest of 422,960 animals, including 164,190 bucks. These statistics do not seem to jibe.

Northcentral Pennsylvania’s public lands host only a remnant deer herd compared to that which existed prior to 2002 when the present deer management plan was instituted. Around here, portions of state game lands are destitute of deer. Posted properties are the salvation of Pennsylvania’s deer herd.

The PGC claims that more deer must be killed to combat the spread of CWD in areas where CWD exists. In places where CWD has not been established, such as northcentral PA, the commission advocates killing more deer to prevent overbrowsing of the habitat. That is certainly specious reasoning, since the northcentral PA deer herd has been so drastically reduced that there are not enough deer left to moderately browse forests.

Tom Venesky noted in “Pennsylvania Outdoor News,” “…hunters may be at the point where they are not willing to … [further] eradicate deer, which would do more to harm the future of our sport than anything else.”