Pennsylvania Game News - June 2010 - 27

The Meat Market
By John A. Shutter, Jr.
PGC Enforcement Division Chief Bureau of Wildlife Protection, Retired artwork by marie girio brummett

ILDLIFE Conservation Officers, like all other law enforcement officers, can be effective only if the citizens they serve are willing to provide them with information about violations. In turn, an officer must have a reputation of being tightlipped regarding the identities of those who provide information, even if it means not filing charges against a suspect if enough evidence cannot be gathered to prosecute the case without the informant’s testimony. While in field-training I quickly saw the importance of having a network of citizens who are willing to provide information about what is happening in the areas where they reside or the areas where they hunt. Upon taking over my district in 1976 I made a concerted effort to build a network of people who would provide me with information. The effort paid off many times over my tenure, and made my enforcement efforts much more effective. Many times an officer will receive information about violations happening in other areas of the state simply because the witness didn’t know the WCO in the county where a violation occurred, but felt comfortable providing the information to their local officer. This case is such an example. In mid-November of 1979 I received a phone call from a man I’ll call Sal. Sal had a moral dilemma with a friend who was buying deer meat and he wanted to talk to me about it. I made arrangements to meet Sal at his home the next day. When I arrived at Sal’s home I was greeted by a nice man who was clearly in distress because he was torn between the loyalty to his friend and helping to stop
JUNE 2010

something he deplored. Sal said a man he had been friends with for years had been buying deer from a family in Clinton County for many years. The friend, who I’ll call Leroy, used to work for decades as a handyman/chauffeur for a prominent attorney. The attorney would receive a phone call each year from the family in Clinton County, who I’ll call the Smiths, taking orders for deer meat they had poached at night and in closed season. It seemed that the family patriarch, Skunky, had over many years created a customer list, and each year he would contact customers and take orders. After placing an order the attorney would wait for a phone call informing him his deer was ready to be picked up. When the call came, the attorney would send Leroy to pick it up and pay for it. During this time Leroy developed a taste for venison, and when the attorney died he took the attorney’s place on the customer list and had been buying venison every year since. Sal told me he had been trying to talk Leroy out of buying deer, because he was a hunter and knew not only that it was unlawful but also harmful to the deer resource. Now that Leroy was older he had given up his driver’s license, and because he couldn’t drive, he asked Sal
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Pennsylvania Game News - June 2010

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