Dear Pennsylvania State Game Commission,

I have no problem with legal hunting, but illegal hunting concerns me greatly.

A couple of Sundays ago at dusk a first grader was with his dad. The first grader looks up and sees a hunter in a make shift stand in a tree in woods adjacent to their woods.

A deer hunter with a gun. On a Sunday, no less. That is not legal in any dimension, let alone in such close proximity to houses.

A call to the game commission office responsible for Chester County (610-926-3136) was not exactly satisfactory. You see, the person taking the calls didn’t want to talk to anyone unless it was their personal safety zone and where the hunter was was adjacent to the personal safety zone of the caller. They were next door, so essentially the person taking calls for the game commission had a case of the customer service snotties.

Pennsylvania Game Commission, you can’t have it both ways. You want us as citizens to report illegal hunting, right? Then make it easier on us. Take the reports if we are taking the time to telephone you people.

Illegal hunting is illegal hunting and I keep hearing about it this year in Chester County. More than in years past.

Just today I heard about bow hunters in a residential neighborhood in Willistown. This is not ok. And no, people can’t just trespass and hunt.

Illegal hunting and poaching gives legitimate hunters an unfairly bad rap. It is also dangerous. In November a New York woman was shot and killed by a hunter less than a 100 yards from her property.

If you see illegal hunting, get to where you are safe and call the police. Don’t confront them.