Post by cmreed on Mar 12, 2009 11:10:51 GMT -4
1 of 1The Pennsylvania Game Commission is investigating the killing and illegal dumping of 32 snow geese in Denver Borough.
All of the birds were shot, but none was butchered to remove the meat, said Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer Robert Prall.
"These aren't true hunters," Prall said. "Hunters don't kill and dump."
Hunting season for snow geese is open through April 1.
Michael Hession, Denver Borough manager, said a resident left a phone message at borough hall over the weekend reporting there were several bird carcasses floating in Cocalico Creek.
On Tuesday morning, borough employees found the dead snow geese and removed them from the creek.
The birds were scattered from the bridge carrying the Pennsylvania Turnpike over Cocalico Creek to the vicinity of North Eighth Street.
"There were several at the turnpike bridge and then we'd find one here and two there as we went downstream," Hession said. "It looks like somebody might have just dumped them from the turnpike."
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Borough officials were worried the geese might have died from something in the creek, which is used as a water supply for Denver.
But Hession said the quality of the water in the creek is "just fine" and had nothing to do with the deaths of the geese.
Hession reported the dead geese to the Game Commission and borough police.
Prall recovered the birds from the Denver employees Tuesday afternoon.
Just by looking at them, Prall said, he could tell that they had been shot but not butchered.
"I took them into custody as evidence," he said.
Discarding game without removing the meat is considered "wanton waste" under state law.
According to published reports, the illegal disposal of geese can carry a penalty of up to $300 per bird in Pennsylvania.
Also, snow geese are migratory waterfowl that fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which means federal sanctions also could be imposed against those who killed and dumped the birds.
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The area around Denver is popular among snow goose hunters because one of the largest gathering spots for the birds in the state is just a few miles west of the borough at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area.
More than 60,000 snow geese were estimated to be at the Game Commission-owned property on the Lancaster-Lebanon county line as of Wednesday morning, according to the agency's Web site.
The finding of the dead snow geese in Denver is the second such incident in southeast Pennsylvania within the past month.
A property owner in West Manchester Township, York County, discovered 25 dead, unbutchered snow geese on his land Feb. 8.
No arrests have been made in that incident.
Anyone with information about the dead geese found in Denver is urged to contact the Game Commission's southeast region office at (610) 926-3136.
E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com