HARRISBURG, PA – Fifty-pound sacks of shelled corn sit stacked at the end of the aisle.
On the bottom shelf, an assortment 25-pound salt blocks, some of them apple-flavored or advertised as high-protein varieties, are wrapped in plastic, next to gallon jugs of liquefied mineral attractants.
Any or all of these products are perfectly legal to purchase. And depending on where in Pennsylvania you’re standing, and the time of year, they might or might not be lawful to use outdoors to attract deer or other wildlife.
But at least 30 days prior to hunting an area where baits like these are used, all such products must be removed from it completely. Even their residues must be gone. And if the requirement isn’t met, any hunter in that area is considered to be hunting illegally over bait.
Aside from a few, very narrow exceptions, hunting through the use of bait is illegal in Pennsylvania.
Yet, each year, it remains one of the top violations for which Game Commission wildlife conservation officers file charges. And the prevalence of baiting seems to have grown in recent years.
In the 2015-16 license year, which ended June 30, charges were filed for hunting over bait in 503 cases statewide. That’s up from 468 hunting-over-bait prosecutions in 2014-15 and 422 in 2013-14.
While many cases investigated by the Game Commission reveal a clear intent to break the law – such as piling corn or apples or placing deer-attracting minerals on the ground in a hunting area – other times the case specifics are a little more complex.
But any question about what’s legal and what isn’t always can be answered by the law.
Read the full news release to learn more about what constitues baiting, baiting penalties, special regulations areas and feeding wildlife.