By Richard L. Gaw, Staff Writer

 After a nearly two-year investigation, the Pennsylvania Game Commission filed 71 charges in October against three Chester County residents who are accused of illegally killing dozens of trophy bucks in Chester and Delaware counties.

The investigation found nearly 50 mounts and antler sets.

Downingtown resident Carroll Nelson IV faces 11 charges including a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. His father Carl Nelson III of West Chester faces 35 charges, including a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, and his brother Mark Nelson of West Chester faces 25 charges, including a third-degree felony punishable for up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Acting on a tip, the Commission’s investigation found that the whitetail bucks were taken out of season, at night and over the state limitation that confines hunters to taking one buck per year.

The Nelsons are being punished for the practice of “poaching,” the illegal taking of wildlife in violation of local, state, federal, or international law. Poaching activities include killing an animal out of season, without a license, with a prohibited weapon, killing a protected species, exceeding a hunter’s “bag” limit, or killing an animal while trespassing on private property.

While the recent investigation in Chester County was successful, it has served to illuminate a severe problem throughout the entire southeastern portion of Pennsylvania, and despite attempts by game authorities to curb the soaring numbers, it’s a problem that is not easily going away.

·       In October 2022, officials with the Pennsylvania Game Commission discovered a 178-pound buck dead in central Pennsylvania’s Union County. It was a victim of poaching.

·       In early 2024, Pennsylvania law enforcement charged six residents in Franklin County with hundreds of wildlife violations after they admitted to illegally shooting and killing between 100 and 200 deer “just for fun” from the fall of 2022 into the winter of 2023. Along with three unidentified suspects, Hunter Atherton, Abigale Hoover and Caillou Patterson – all 20 at the time -- face state charges for the corruption of juveniles. The six suspects face a combined 486 charges that include the unlawful taking of game, possession of loaded guns in a vehicle, disregarding spotlighting restrictions, illegal use of lights while hunting, and the unlawful use of a vehicle for locating game. Some of the charges could result in penalties of up to three years in jail, plus a $15,000 fine. Wildlife restitution charges are also on the table, which are associated over $20,000.

·       This past October, three Pennsylvania men in Washington County were charged with illegally killing 21 deer over two days and were sentenced to jail and forced to pay thousands of dollars in fines. The men, identified as Ezra McClelland, 20; Julian Marth, 21; and Grant Bamberger, 20, used a spotlight to shoot the animals with rifles from their vehicles between 3 and 4 a.m. over two nights in December of 2023.

·       In May of 2024, The Pennsylvania Game Commission Southwest Region announced that a large case involving multiple counts of unlawful taking of game has been recently adjudicated in the court system in Cambria County. During the fall of 2023, reports were released indicating that ten deer were shot at night from a moving vehicle and left to lay and rot. The juveniles pleaded guilty in Cambria County Court to an arraignment with the juvenile probation office. The juveniles plead guilty to felony unlawful killing or taking of big game, paid $5,000 in fines, received probation, assigned to 50 hours of community service, and will face multiple years of hunting license revocation.

“What these individuals have allegedly done over a period of years undermines the very essence of why Chester County is the incredibly beautiful place and popular destination it is and arguably our most precious assets are our natural resource areas and the diversity of wildlife that live there,” said Todd Pride, District 8 Commissioner for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, an area that comprises Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks and Philadelphia counties. “Getting away with incidents like these or getting off lightly after being caught for any game laws has contributed to many private landowners not letting people hunt their properties which starts with trespassing. 

“This in effect has led to the increase in the overpopulation of deer, leading to more vehicle collisions, leading to deer devastating our bird habitats and residential landscapes as they seek more food and leading to an increase in Lyme disease cases, among other factors.”

State laws are in place

Founded in 1895, the mission of the Pennsylvania Game Commission is to manage and protect wildlife and its habitats while promoting legal hunting and trapping, each of which have historically played an important role in wildlife management. For game species like deer and bears, hunting is the primary method through which populations are held in check. Without hunting, the burden of managing wildlife populations likely would fall to taxpayers, but with hunting, hunters carry out the job, while paying license fees that help to fund the conservation of all species, game and nongame alike.

Poaching undermines the central principles of wildlife management, which are based in sustainability, conservation and respect for wildlife, said Stephen P. Smith, executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

“For hundreds of thousands of hunters in Pennsylvania, the subsistence we get from harvesting an animal is our primary motivation for being out there – to feed our families with nutritious meals,” Smith said. “What we’re finding are individuals who are killing above and beyond, and are doing so out of a sick form of pleasure – shooting at an animal and letting it lay, for the thrill of it. It is disheartening that an individual would devalue wildlife to the point that they would harvest it unlawfully, purely out of a sense of pleasure.

“It is the exact antithesis of what hunting is really about.”

Under Pennsylvania law, hunters in the state are allowed one antlered deer per year, and one antlerless deer for every Wildlife Management Unit (WMU)-specific antlerless license or Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) permit. Further, the implementation of antler-point restrictions in 2002 limit hunters to harvesting bucks with three or four points on one side, depending on which area of the state. The 2024 deer harvest season for firearm use began on November 30 and ended on December 14, but there are other dates pertinent to hunting with archery.

The charges filed against those named in these incidents are a far cry from the way poaching was handled years ago in Pennsylvania, when a poacher could kill any big game animal and if caught, receive a penalty that had the legal bite equivalent of a traffic ticket and no possibility of jail time. In 2009, former State Rep. Edward G. Staback, then the Chairman of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, introduced House Bill 1859, which was later passed into law as Act 54 in 2010 by a House vote of 189-6.

Under this legislation, those in Pennsylvania who are convicted of killing five or more big game animals -- or three big game poaching offenses within seven years -- face possible felony-level penalties ranging from $1,000 to up to $15,000, loss of license privileges for 15 years, and up to three years in prison. The law also includes heightened penalties for the buying and selling of game; increased fines for summary offenses, such as using unlawful methods or devices; increased penalties for the killing of threatened or endangered species; and increased jail time for non-payment of fines from 120 days to six months.

‘Not a victimless crime’

While these enforcements remain on the state’s books, however, the number of poaching incidents in both southeastern Pennsylvania and in the entire Commonwealth continue to magnify the seriousness of the issue and serve to undermine the freedoms of hunters who play by the rules.

“The act of poaching is not a victimless crime by any sense,” Smith said. “It is the taking of an animal’s life, but it is doing so outside of the regularly structured seasons and in so doing, it is depriving a lawful hunter – an individual who is doing everything correctly – of that resource and that opportunity.

“It is something that our agency continues to deal with, and it is why our agency was formed. It comes to the core of what we do – to create protections to wildlife based on the biological needs of the species, and when an individual goes outside that structure, it is a fundamental attack on the way we manage wildlife.”

Whether the rising number of incidents of poaching are related to the popularity of hunting in the Commonwealth is debatable, but either way, it has become a hot topic among law-abiding hunters in the state. According to the National Deer Association -- an advocacy group working to ensure the future of wild deer, wildlife habitat and hunting -- Pennsylvania annually ranks in the top five among states in terms of antlered buck harvest; antlered buck harvest per square mile; antlerless deer harvest; antlerless deer harvest per square mile; and antlerless deer per antlered buck harvest.

Last year in Pennsylvania, hunters harvested an estimated 430,010 white-tailed deer, with statewide buck harvest estimated at 171,600 and antlerless harvest estimated at 258,410. As in years past, the regular firearms deer season accounted for the largest part of the take: firearms hunters took an estimated 254,710 deer, with 86,260 of those bucks and the remaining 168,450 being antlerless. 

‘Deer hunting is not just meat in the freezer for us’

Reiterating that the charges filed against the Nelsons in October came from a tip supplied to a game officer, Smith said the Commission’s first line of defense against poaching is the public’s action to report crimes and work with game officers. The Commission has enacted Operation Game Thief (OGT), a silent witness, anti-poaching program that encourages the public to report any suspicious activity or knowledge about a poaching violation. The toll-free and confidential hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

“It also comes down to having manpower in the field to follow up on those tips, to investigate, to prosecute those cases and see that justice is done,” Smith said. “We continue to invest in our personnel. We make sure they are well trained, that they have the equipment necessary, and we put them in those areas where they can work with the public to make sure that the interest of the lawful hunters as well as wildlife.”

For both Pride and Smith, cracking down on poaching throughout the state will come down to lawful hunters, game personnel and game commissions working hand in hand, not just for those who play by the rules, but for wildlife as well.

“Deer hunting is not just ‘meat in the freezer’ to us,” Pride said of the District Commission’s continuing work to enforce laws against wild animal poaching. “It’s a critical part of wildlife management and we are trying to balance the ecosystem in communities. If individuals can get away with these wildlife crimes, what won’t they do?”

If you see illegal animal poaching, report it to the Pennsylvania Game Commission by calling the agency’s 24-hour dispatch center at 1-833-PGC-HUNT or 1-833-PGC-WILD, or call the Operation Game Thief toll-free hotline at 1-888-PGC-8001.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].