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It's up to you - the public - to pressure wildlife agencies and legislators to protect wildlife from needless suffering and death. Wild animals need not end their lives on hunter's walls or as pelts to be sold for fur coats. The W.P.N. provides information and activist links which allow you to contact legislators and the media to lobby for legislation which protects wild animals. Always remember to add your address to each email that you send.

93% OF PENNSYLVANIANS DO NOT HUNT OR TRAP WILDLIFE
The Pennsylvania Game Commission, like most state wildlife agencies, is mandated to act as "stewards" of wildlife for all the residents of the state. Yet in reality, state wildlife agencies act as glorified special interest groups catering to hunters and trappers, using only lethal methods to deal with wildlife problems. Wild animals are viewed as "crops" to be propagated and harvested for the pleasure of sport hunters and trappers. Wild animals are subjected to canned hunts, steel jaw leghold and pole traps, exploding bullets, razor-tipped arrows, and other horrors to appease the bloodlust of so-called sportsmen and women. Animals are bred in wildlife farms, trapped and transported from other states, and purchased from"overstocked" zoos only to be tortured and killed "for sport".

The Wildlife Protection Network seeks to educate the public
about nonlethal and humane means of dealing with wildlife issues. Additionally, the W.P.N. provides an activist site for contacting legislators and the media in an effort to express public opinion in support of the humane treatment of wild animals.

The state of Pennsylvania has a long and entrenched tradition of hunting and trapping wildlife.
Despite the more progressive practices of nearby states such as Connecticut (allows wildlife contraception ), Maryland (allows wildlife contraception ), New Jersey (allows wildlife contraception and bans the leg hold trap), New York (allows wildlife contraception), Ohio (allows wildlife contraception), and Rhode Island( bans the leghold trap), Pennsylvania has resisted efforts to introduce a scientific approach to solving wildlife and environmental problems.

State officials, in an effort to increase revenue from hunting and trapping licenses, have expanded the number of species hunted and trapped.
This year, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will add elk and bobcats to its list of hunted and trapped species for no other reason than to allow hunters and trappers to "bag one in their lifetime."

As human numbers overtake all other species, so-called "pest species" have been targeted around the globe.
Deer and elk; wild goats, pigs, and horses; foxes; rabbits; mice and rats; cats and dogs as well as many others have suffered cruel and horrible fates as a result of being labeled a pest species. Pest species are not problems until human activities make them into one. Habitat destruction and manipulation, thoughtless introduction of non-indigenous species by wildlife agencies, and trophy hunting and trapping have disrupted, skewed, and in some cases, extirpated wildlife populations.

The twenty-first century offers a renaissance of technological advances.
For the first time, mammalian populations can be scientifically managed by means of fertility control. Lethal methods used to reduce wildlife populations - hunting, trapping, poisoning, and the introduction of lethal diseases - should be illegal because they inflict terrible suffering and death on animals in the process of trying to reduce or control their numbers. On the other hand, fertility control - a nonlethal method- enhances the quality of life for animals while controlling their numbers. For this reason the W.P.N. promotes fertility control research for the control of wildlife populations.

State Game Commissions and public wildlife agencies across the United States use lethal methods, and lethal methods alone, to control wildlife.
Entire wildlife populations have been decimated through hunting and trapping, then when an indigenous species has either reinstated itself after a cessation of killing or been replaced by a non-indigenous species, the new population is often decimated again. In other situations, wildlife populations have been artificially manipulated to placate hunters and trappers through selective trophy hunting, propagation and release, trap and transfer, habitat enhancement, and other methods. In some cases, wildlife populations are artificially increased for hunting despite the fact that this increase presents significant safety hazards to humans.

State Game Commissions derive the bulk of their revenue from activities involving hunters and trappers.
Therefore, despite the fact that they comprise only a small percentage (7-8%) of a state population, hunters and trappers feel entitled to kill wildlife.

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