Woman fined $2,000 for poaching California bighorn
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posted 12 January 2017 21:0812 January 2017 21:08 |
Link has photo of the three ram skulls and horns.
Woman fined $2,000 for poaching California bighorn
By Cam Fortems - January 11, 2017
A First Nations woman has pleaded guilty to shooting a California bighorn sheep — one of three she hunted — and leaving most of its meat behind.
Marlene Kato was sentenced yesterday in provincial court under the Wildlife Act for failing to remove edible portions of a carcass. The law is in place to ensure hunters kill for more than a trophy rack or horns.
Crown prosecutor Joel Gold said on Nov. 9, 2014, conservation officers found two of the three dead rams within 10 metres of a logging road in an area north of Kamloops Lake while the third was about 500 metres away on a slope.
They had been killed the previous day. While meat was removed from two of the animals, most of the meat from the third ram was left on the hillside.
Kato, a member of the Ashcroft Indian Band who works at Overlander Residential Care, was originally charged with three counts of failing to remove edible portions of a carcass, but two of the counts were dropped in return for her pleading guilty to the single charge. She was accompanied by her husband and daughter at the time of the hunt.
Judge Chris Cleaveley sentenced Kato to a $2,000 fine. All but $100 of that amount will go to the B.C. Habitat Conservation Trust Fund. As part of the deal, she forfeited her right to trophy parts — the cape and the skull and horns.
Outside court, conservation officer Kevin Van Damme said the shooting of the three rams is a concern to local First Nations because sustenance hunting should be done for food, rather than profit. Parts harvested from bighorn sheep can fetch as much as $20,000 on the open market.
The law allows aboriginal hunting for food.
“We commonly see that with aboriginal people with moose and deer and elk. We don’t see a lot of sustenance hunting for sheep,” Van Damme said, noting it does occur.
Kato did bring the head and horns to ministry officials for identification and reporting. They were seized.
Van Damme said Tk’emlups and Skeetchestn Indian bands both manage bighorn sheep populations and typically require their members to obtain a permit before hunting for sheep.
“In speaking with chief and council . . . there was no support for this hunt.”
Non-aboriginal hunters can apply in a lottery for the right to harvest bighorn sheep. The odds of winning a tag are in the order of 1-1,000.
“You can apply for a lifetime and not get a draw,” Van Damme said.
Hunting bighorn sheep at that time of year and area is also not considered sport because the animals are not wary of people and will wander beside busy roads and highways.
California bighorn sheep are considered an at-risk species in B.C.
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Re: Woman fined $2,000 for poaching California bighorn
Originally Posted by IronNoggin
"It's not the kill, but the thrill of the chase" - Deep Purple
