2012 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes
Title 34 - GAME
Chapter 1 - Preliminary Provisions
Section 102 - Definitions

     § 102.  Definitions.
        Subject to additional definitions contained in subsequent
     provisions of this title which are applicable to specific
     provisions of this title, the following words and phrases when
     used in this title shall have the meanings given to them in this
     section unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
        "Acknowledgment of guilt."  A written statement admitting
     guilt, given by an accused individual to an officer or deputy
     officer along with the payment of a fine, which statement shall
     have the same force and effect as though the person executing it
     had a hearing before proper authority and been convicted of the
     offense of which he is accused.
        "Arrow."  A missile shot from a bow, having a slender shaft
     with fletching or vanes at the butt and a pointed head without
     any explosive, chemical or poison in the head or shaft and used
     solely with a bow.
        "Big game."  Unless otherwise modified by regulation of the
     commission, includes the elk, the whitetail deer, the bear and
     the wild turkey.
        "Bird."  A member of the class Aves, including any part,
     product, egg or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts
     thereof (excluding fossils), whether or not included in a
     manufactured product or in a processed food product.
        "Blind."  A manmade structure of any size, shape or design
     constructed or arranged of any material in such a manner as to
     conceal the body of any person, either in whole or part.
        "Bodily injury."  Impairment of physical condition or
     substantial pain.
        "Bow."  A weapon which propels an arrow, is hand-held, hand-
     drawn, held in the drawn position by hand or by a hand-held
     mechanical device and released by hand. The term shall not be
     construed or interpreted to mean or include what is commonly
     known as a cross-bow.
        "Closed season."  The periods of the calendar year and the
     hours during which it is unlawful to take game or wildlife.
        "Commission."  The Pennsylvania Game Commission of the
     Commonwealth.
        "Conspire" or "conspiracy."  The act or action of two or more
     persons combining in any manner or degree to violate any
     provisions of this title, either before or after the actual
     commission of the offense, even though the offense is not
     consummated.
        "Contraband."  Any game or wildlife, or part or product
     thereof, or any personal property, including, but not limited
     to, firearms, traps, boats, decoys, vehicles and attachments and
     property designed for use or used in hunting and taking game or
     wildlife, when the game or wildlife, or part or product thereof,
     or the personal property is held in possession, transported or
     used or taken in violation of any law, the enforcement or
     administration of which is vested in the commission. Contraband
     shall be forfeited to the commission to be disposed of at the
     discretion of the director.
        "Convicted."  The finding of guilty of a person charged with
     an offense after a hearing before a qualified authority. The
     execution of an "acknowledgment of guilt" or a "plea of guilty"
     shall have the same effect.
        "Director."  The Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Game
     Commission or any person to whom authority has been delegated by
     the director.
        "District justice."  (Deleted by amendment).
        "Domicile."  That place where a person has a true, fixed and
     permanent home and principal residence and to which, whenever
     the person is temporarily absent, the person intends to return.
     A domicile is a permanent building, or part thereof, including a
     house, condominium, apartment room in a house or complex, or
     mobile home. No vacant lot, second home, camp, cottage or
     premises used solely for business shall be considered a
     domicile.
        "Each."  The whole or any part or parts, or manufactured
     products containing the whole or any part or parts, of any game
     or wildlife.
        "Endangered species."  All species and subspecies of wildlife
     which have been declared by:
            (1)  the Secretary of the United States Department of the
        Interior to be threatened with extinction and appear on the
        Endangered Species List or the Native Endangered Species List
        published in the Federal Register; or
            (2)  the director to be threatened with extinction and
        appear on the Pennsylvania Endangered Species List published
        in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
        "Facsimile."  A copy of game or wildlife with similar
     characteristics. The term includes man-made, taxidermy mounts,
     mechanical or electronic facsimiles.
        "Fine shot."  Pellets which are no larger than what is
     commonly known as BB's. The term does not include buckshot.
        "Firearm."  An instrument used in the propulsion of shot,
     shell, bullet or any other object by the action of gunpowder
     exploded, explosive powder, the expansion of gas or the force of
     a mechanical device under tension.
            (1)  "Automatic."  Any firearm which discharges more than
        once with a single pull of the trigger.
            (2)  "Semiautomatic."  Any firearm which reloads without
        aid of the shooter, but fires only once with a single pull of
        the trigger.
        "Furbearers."  Unless otherwise modified by regulation of the
     commission, the term includes the badger, the fisher, the mink,
     the muskrat, the opossum, the otter, the pine marten, the
     striped and spotted skunk, the beaver, the raccoon, all weasels,
     the red and gray fox and the bobcat.
        "Game."  Includes "game animals," "game birds" and any
     facsimile thereof.
        "Game animals."  Unless otherwise modified by regulation of
     the commission, the term includes the elk, the whitetail deer,
     the bear, the cottontail rabbit, the snowshoe hare, the red,
     gray and fox squirrel and the groundhog or woodchuck.
        "Game birds."  Unless otherwise modified by regulation of the
     commission, the term includes geese, brant, wild ducks,
     mergansers and swans; coots, gallinules, rails, snipe, woodcock;
     turkeys, grouse, pheasants, Hungarian partridges, bobwhite quail
     and mourning doves.
        "Green pelt."  A pelt which is not dried, cured or tanned.
        "Hunt" or "hunting."  Any act or furtherance of the taking or
     killing of any game or wildlife, or any part or product thereof,
     and includes, but is not limited to, chasing, tracking, calling,
     pursuing, lying in wait, trapping, shooting at, including
     shooting at a game or wildlife facsimile, or wounding with any
     weapon or implement, or using any personal property, including
     dogs, or the property of others, of any nature, in furtherance
     of any of these purposes, or aiding, abetting or conspiring with
     another person in that purpose.
        "Loaded firearm."  A firearm of any kind which has a live
     shell or cartridge in either the chamber or magazine.
        "Magisterial district judge."  Includes a court of the minor
     judiciary having jurisdiction over summary offenses generally.
        "Management unit."  Any geographic area defined and
     designated by regulation of the commission for game or wildlife
     management purposes which may consist of all or a part or parts
     of one or more contiguous counties or management units and
     includes all lands and waters therein.
        "Migratory game bird."  Any game bird defined in 50 CFR 20.11
     (relating to meaning of terms), except as otherwise provided in
     Pennsylvania Game Commission regulations.
        "Migratory waterfowl."  All species as defined in 50 CFR by
     the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of
     the Interior.
        "Mounted specimen."  Any game or wildlife, or any portion or
     part thereof, prepared, preserved, arranged, set up or posed in
     a lifelike position or some other form of display.
        "Officer."  Any Game Commission officer or deputy Game
     Commission officer appointed by the commission or any other
     person with law enforcement powers who is designated by the
     director to enforce this title.
        "Open season."  The indicated periods of the calendar year
     and the daily hours during which game or wildlife may be legally
     hunted, taken or killed and includes both the first and the last
     day of the season or period of time designated by this title or
     by regulation of the commission.
        "Part" or "parts."  Any portion of tissue, flesh, blood,
     bone, hide, skin, hair or feather of such substance, size,
     volume or weight, which may be determined by a qualified person
     as belonging to the species alleged, even though diluted or
     contained in any manufactured product.
        "Person."  An individual, partnership, association,
     corporation, political subdivision, municipal authority, the
     Commonwealth or any other legal entity as the context requires.
        "Poaching."  To unlawfully take game or wildlife by means of
     or as a result of multiple violations of the provisions of this
     title or the regulations thereunder.
        "Possession."  The detention and control, or the manual or
     ideal custody, of anything which may be the subject of property,
     for one's use and enjoyment, either as owner or as the
     proprietor of a qualified right in it, and either held
     personally or by another who exercises it in one's place and
     name. Possession includes the act or state of possessing and
     that condition of facts under which one can exercise his power
     over a corporeal thing at his pleasure to the exclusion of all
     other persons. Possession includes constructive possession which
     means not actual but assumed to exist where one claims to hold
     by virtue of some title without having actual custody. The
     presence in a vehicle of any kind, or its attachments, of any
     unlawfully taken game or wildlife or unlawful device or
     contraband is presumptive evidence of its possession by all
     persons occupying the vehicle or its attachments.
        "Protected birds."  All wild birds not included within the
     term "game birds."
        "Raptors."  All eagles, falcons, hawks and owls, individually
     or collectively, whether protected or unprotected.
        "Resident."  A person who is permanently domiciled within
     this Commonwealth which person's principal domicile is in this
     Commonwealth to which that person has the intention of returning
     whenever that person is temporarily absent.
        "Serious bodily injury."  Bodily injury which creates a
     substantial risk of death or which causes serious permanent
     disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function
     of any bodily member or organ.
        "Shooting hours."  The designated periods of time, including
     any modification by regulation of the commission, for the lawful
     killing or taking of game or wildlife.
        "Small game."  All species of game birds and game animals not
     classed as big game.
        "Take."  To harass, pursue, hunt for, shoot, wound, kill,
     trap, capture, possess or collect any game or wildlife,
     including shooting at a facsimile of game or wildlife, or
     attempt to harass, pursue, hunt for, shoot, wound, kill, trap,
     capture or collect any game or wildlife or aiding, abetting or
     conspiring with another person in that purpose.
        "Taxidermy."  The practice of mounting, arranging, posing,
     preserving or freeze-drying game or wildlife, fish or reptiles
     in a lifelike position.
        "Threatened species."  All species and subspecies of wildlife
     which have been declared by:
            (1)  the Secretary of the United States Department of the
        Interior to be in such small numbers throughout their range
        that they may become endangered if their environment worsens
        and appear on a Threatened Species List published in the
        Federal Register; or
            (2)  the director to be in such small numbers throughout
        their range that they may become endangered if their
        environment worsens and appear on the Pennsylvania Threatened
        Species List published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
        "Title."  The provisions of this title and any rules,
     regulations, restrictions or guidelines which are adopted by the
     commission and promulgated as required by law.
        "Time."  Official prevailing time.
        "Transporting."  To move from one place to another by any
     means whatsoever.
        "Trapping."  The securing or attempting to secure possession
     of game or wildlife by means of setting, placing or using any
     device that is designed to close upon, hold fast, confine or
     otherwise capture game or wildlife whether these means result in
     capturing or not. It includes every act of assistance to any
     other person in capturing game or wildlife by means of such
     device whether these means result in capturing or not.
        "Violation."  Any act in violation of a provision of this
     title or any regulation promulgated by the commission which
     implements or otherwise pertains to any provision of this title.
        "Wild animals."  All mammals other than domestic animals as
     defined in 1 Pa.C.S. § 1991 (relating to definitions).
        "Wild birds."  All migratory birds as defined in 50 CFR by
     the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of
     the Interior, game birds and any other birds designated by the
     commission, including, but not limited to, grouse, partridge,
     pheasant, quail and wild turkey.
        "Wildlife."  Wild birds, wild mammals and facsimiles thereof,
     regardless of classification, whether protected or unprotected,
     including any part, product, egg or offspring thereof, or the
     dead body or parts thereof (excluding fossils), whether or not
     included.
     (Nov. 25, 1988, P.L.1082, No.125, eff. imd.; Apr. 4, 1996,
     P.L.55, No.19, eff. imd.; Dec. 19, 1996, P.L.1442, No.184, eff.
     60 days; Nov. 30, 2004, P.L.1618, No.207, eff. 60 days; July 9,
     2008, P.L.920, No.65, eff. imd.; July 9, 2010, P.L.387, No.54,
     eff. 60 days)

        2010 Amendment.  Act 54 amended the defs. of "closed season,"
     "open season" and "violation." See section 6 of Act 54 in the
     appendix to this title for special provisions relating to public
     notice.
        2008 Amendment.  Act 65 added the def. of "mounted specimen."
        2004 Amendment.  Act 207 deleted the def. of "district
     justice" and added the def. of "magisterial district judge." See
     sections 28 and 29 of Act 207 in the appendix to this title for
     special provisions relating to applicability and construction of
     law.
        1996 Amendments.  Act 19 added the def. of "migratory game
     bird" and Act 184 amended the defs. of "game," "hunt" or
     "hunting," "take" and "wildlife" and added the defs. of "bodily
     injury," "facsimile," "poaching" and "serious bodily injury."
        1988 Amendment.  Act 125 added the def. of "loaded firearm."
        Cross References.  Section 102 is referred to in section 2902
     of this title.