Also this issue:

Deer Nuts
One woman’s crusade against deer culling ended with her being led away in handcuffs.
—Pete Mazzaccaro

West Bankrupt?
Philly activists are heading to the Mideast to protest against Israel.
—Jenn Carbin

Leaky Logic
A Canadian emigre living in Wynnewood is facing life behind bars for selling water-purification systems to Cuba.
—Steve Eckardt

A Tale of Two Cities

Here Come Da Judges
—Mary F. Patel

April 4-10, 2002

city beat

Hedging Bets

COLD COMFORT: These toys are the only hedgehogs George has left.

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

A leader of the Hedgehog Underground Railroad goes on trial.

by Jenn Carbin

Connie George says she wasn’t given a chance to talk about any of the issues that resulted in her appearing before District Justice Jack D. Lippart in a Delaware County courtroom recently.

George, a former owner and breeder of African pygmy hedgehogs, blames what she describes as doublespeak and misinformation on the part of Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) officials for any laws she broke in owning the animals. PGC issued her 15 citations for possessing “a hedgehog that was held in captivity or captive bred in another state or nation.”

The result of the magistrate-level hearing is that George was found guilty for possessing two animals, with double penalties, or for four citations. She must pay $100 and court costs for each citation, for a total of $540.

George has admitted to importing 15 hedgehogs, which is illegal, from Washington state in January 2001, but she says that those animals were sold out of state within a few weeks and that the rest of her herd was almost certainly of stock allowed to be “grandfathered in” under the Pennsylvania wildlife code. She says she won’t appeal, though.

“The whole reason I wanted to go to court was to talk about the abuse-of-power issue. There’s no guarantee that I’d get to do that on a county level,” she says.

George’s last two animals, which were seized by PGC in January, are in state custody. She says that’s another reason not to appeal. “I want them to just get the hedgehogs out of the state to somebody who will take care of them.”

Jerry Feaser, press secretary for PGC, says, “We’re pleased that the judge ruled primarily in our favor.”

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