GAME COMMISSION CANCELS FALL TAXIDERMISTS EXAM

HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania Game Commission Bureau of Wildlife Protection Acting Director Richard Palmer today announced that the agency would not be holding its annual fall taxidermy exam.  Act 77, which was signed into law by Governor Edward G. Rendell on July 7, transfers oversight for taxidermists from the Game Commission to the state Department of Agriculture.     

Act 77, formerly House Bill 1528, was sponsored by Rep. Rod Wilt (R-Mercer), and was approved by a vote of 192-2 in the House on Nov. 21.  After being amended in the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee, the bill was unanimously approved by the Senate on June 29.  The House voted 194-2 to concur in the Senate-amended version on June 30, and sent it to Governor Rendell's desk for action.  The Governor signed the bill on July 7, and the new law takes effect in 90 days. 

"As the Game Commission will no longer be responsible for overseeing the taxidermy industry, we deemed it unnecessary to hold an exam this fall," Palmer said. 

Created in 1895 as an independent state agency, the Game Commission is responsible for conserving and managing all wild birds and mammals in the Commonwealth, establishing hunting seasons and bag limits, enforcing hunting and trapping laws, and managing habitat on the 1.4 million acres of State Game Lands it has purchased over the years with hunting and furtaking license dollars to safeguard wildlife habitat.  The agency also conducts numerous wildlife conservation programs for schools, civic organizations and sportsmen's clubs. 

The Game Commission does not receive any general state taxpayer dollars for its annual operating budget.  The agency is funded by license sales revenues; the state's share of the federal Pittman-Robertson program, which is an excise tax collected through the sale of sporting arms and ammunition; and monies from the sale of oil, gas, coal, timber and minerals derived from State Game Lands.