Stephen Mohr
Former Pennsylvania Game Commissioner Stephen L. Mohr admitted Tuesday to illegally buying six puppies last month that were determined to be part wolf.
Mohr, 61, of 144 Race St., Bainbridge, pleaded guilty before District Judge William G. Reuter of Mount Joy to two summary counts of importing an exotic animal without a permit. The charges were lodged by the Game Commission.
Mohr paid $2,162 in fines.
Mohr said he did not know the puppies were part wolf and he called his prosecution — and media outlets being informed of it — "payback" for his staunch opposition to the Game Commission's deer management program.
"They didn't come at me like it was payback but I got a tip that it was, and so I think it probably was," he said. "If it was payback, I'll just say I took one for the team."
Mohr declined to say who provided the tip.
Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser denied Mohr's allegation.
"Mr. Mohr was treated the same as anyone else in violation of the law," Feaser wrote in an email.
According to Mohr, he bought six puppies from a breeder in Ohio, thinking they were Husky/Malamute hybrids. Mohr said he paid $200 apiece for the pups.
As soon as he got the puppies, Mohr said, he turned them over to a woman who lives near him, whom he declined to name.
"There's no need to drag her name into this," Mohr said. "I'll take the heat."
The woman frequently sells Husky pups "to earn a little extra money," Mohr said.
Mohr expected to be paid back for purchasing the dogs as the woman sold them.
Mohr received no paperwork on the pups' bloodlines when he received them. He said the woman who was going to sell them contacted the Ohio breeder for that information.
"That's when the breeder told her they had some wolf blood in them," Mohr said.
A wolf is considered an exotic animal in Pennsylvania and state residents need an exotic wildlife dealer permit to import, possess, buy, sell or give away more than one exotic animal in a given year, according to state wildlife law.
At some point, Mohr said, the Game Commission was tipped off about the puppies.
Mohr said they seized three, after the woman had sold the others.
He said he heard the puppies were tested to determine that they were part wolf, and his citation indicates laboratory services were used in the investigation.
Feaser declined to comment on details of the investigation, including identifying the woman.
Mohr said he heard the confiscated pups were taken to a wolf sanctuary.
Feaser did not comment on their whereabouts.
When contacted by Game Commission officers about the puppies, Mohr said he told them what happened.
"I thought they were animals I was allowed to have," he said. "When they told me I wasn't, I didn't fight it. I pleaded guilty and paid my fines."
After serving eight years as a member of the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners from 1998 to 2006, Mohr has become one of the state's leading critics of the agency's deer management program.
He is president of Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, which continuously objects to the program.
The organization has sued the Game Commission twice over the program, claiming the agency is mismanaging the herd.
Both lawsuits were thrown out of court.
Mohr alleged Wednesday that someone within the Game Commission told media outlets about his guilty pleas, "to try to stir the pot, I guess."
The Game Commission did not notify the Intelligencer Journal/ Lancaster New Era about the case. Feaser provided information about them when asked by a reporter.
The newspaper learned of the case from an anonymous phone caller and via email from a reporter for another news outlet.
