Poached deer kicks up fury
November 21, 2007 Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star
A Coldstream neighbourhood is up in arms after a poacher killed a deer early Tuesday morning. The whitetail buck was making its way across a private pasture in the 10000 block of Coldstream Creek Road at about 6 a.m. when someone shot it with a crossbow. "It's not ethical and it's not right," said a neighbour, who asked that his name not be used. Beyond the illegality of the killing, there are also safety concerns. "A bow is a dangerous weapon at night when you don't know where the arrow is going," said Josh Lockwood, a conservation officer.
A neighbour first became
aware of the situation when he heard a truck driving up and down the road. "I
looked down at the field and saw a hand-held light going across the field," said
the resident who went outside.
As he neared the road, he saw somebody climb into a truck. "By the time I got down there, I couldn't see the licence plate number," said the resident. The animal wasn't dead and had to be put down by a neighbour. It's believed the poacher would have taken the animal if they hadn't been scared away by the neighbour. "This is a deliberate act," said Lockwood of the killing.
Under wildlife legislation, it is illegal to hunt at night, to trespass or to shoot from a road. You also can't use a light or hunt in a cultivated field. And while this area is not covered by Coldstream's hunting ban, municipal bylaws say firearms - including bows - can't be fired within 100 metres of a building. Permission is also required from the property owner. *****
The Ministry of Environment is seeking public assistance to determine who is responsible for the shooting. It's believed the suspect was wearing a ball cap with white flames on the side. Observed at the scene was a white crew-cab truck with a tubular boat rack. "It's an extremely noisy vehicle and it has writing, like a construction company sign, on the door," said Lockwood. A dark blue mini-van was also seen in the area. The arrow will be checked for fingerprints.
Hunting at night can lead to a fine of up to $100,000, six months in jail and a minimum five-year suspension from hunting. "We are dealing with multiple offences here," said Lockwood. Anyone with information, is asked to call 1-877-952-7277.
- Disturbing
poaching case in Coleman
Friday December 14, 2007 Bryan Passifiume Crowsnest Pass Promoter
Fish and Wildlife officers in the Pass discovered the body of a Bighorn Sheep ram near Crowsnest Lake last month, a ram taken out of season and much too young. The young ram was discovered on Nov. 8, well over a week after hunting season for male Bighorn Sheep ended.
The ram, according to
Fish and Wildlife Office John Clarke, had a hunting arrow lodged in its left
shoulder. The ram, in a weakened state from the injury, fell to its death from a
cliff. "The wound was fresh
enough that it occurred after the hunting season had ended," Clarke said, noting
that the wound had not developed any infection or necrosis indicative of a
long-time injury.
Apart from the out-of-season hunt for the ram, the animal itself was much too
young to be hunted. Depending on where you hunt in the province, the ram's horns
must either present a full curl of four fifths of growth before it can legally
he hunted. A full-curl ram would be approximately seven years old. According to
the curl of its horn, the dead ram was around three.
"This one is so small, it doesn't make sense," Clarke said. He suspects that the culprit was younger, so in the course of his investigation he interviewed local bow hunters with a sheep licence to try and find out who committed this act. He is hoping that exposure through the media will help the Fish and Wildlife office determine who wounded the animal out of season. Clarke says the brand and type of arrow used is very unique in the bowhunting world.
Ross MacDonald, of the Hillcrest Fish and Game Club expressed disappointment in what appears to be a very obvious disregard for the rules. "When you're bowhunting, you've got to be close to the animal," MacDonald said. "That means you're close enough to know it wasn't legal."
MacDonald says that any hunter would know that the ram was too young to do anything with, and that the incident certainly wasn't accidental. Macdonald also expressed dismay that such acts paints all hunters in a negative light, bowhunters especially.
Pit-lamping of pregnant deer horrifies conservation staff
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Clare Ogilvie
The Province
WHISTLER -- It was a case that horrified the conservation officers -- three
Richmond men who under cover of darkness used high-intensity spot-lamps to shoot
dead two female deer, one of which was pregnant with two fawns.
"It was emotional," said conservation officer Dave Jevons.
"It was very tough at the time."
The three men were caught with the dead deer in their minivan at 2 a.m. in a
CounterAttack RCMP roadblock in Whistler on June 14. They pleaded guilty in
North
Vancouver provincial court to four counts under the Wildlife Act, including
hunting out of season.
Deer season runs from mid-September to the end of November. Female deer can
never be legally hunted.
Police found high-powered spot lights and a loaded semi-automatic rifle in the
van.
Fifty-year-old Bing Tom Xie was fined $7,000, banned from hunting for two years,
and from possessing wildlife or hunting weapons. He also forfeited his two
rifles.
Zhi Wei Jie, 48, and Dong Pang, 49, pleaded guilty to one count each of unlawful
possession of wildlife and were each fined $1,000 and ordered to forfeit their
firearms.
The necropsies determined that one of the deer had recently given birth and the
other would likely have given birth in about 48 hours, said Jevons.
Police forensics matched a bullet found in the fetal sac surrounding the two
unborn fawns to one of the rifles found in the minivan.The fact that the deer were not gutted suggests that they may have been targeted
because they appeared to be pregnant, he said.
Fetal fawns are used medicinally or as a delicacy in some Asian cultures.
"We couldn't prove this, but we believe they were deliberately targeting deer
and they were likely after the fawns," said Jevons.
- Appalling practice
Thursday, December 20, 2007
I was appalled to read about the men caught poaching female deer in Whistler. The belief of conservation officers that they were mainly interested in the pregnant doe's dead fetuses is even more disgusting -- not to mention the fact that the hunters involved are getting off with not much more than a measly fine.
This is unacceptable to those of us who respect wildlife and nature. These hunters must pay for these atrocities.
They were allegedly following cultural behaviour that they have practised for untold generations.
We do not abide or accept such practices here in Canada. Carl Fuller, Burnaby
Investigation underway after bear-baiter found: conservationist
June 13, 2009 By Laura Stone, The Province
Fish heads and guts were among the bait that conservationists claim was used to lure Grizzly bears to be shot in a Bella Bella conservancy area Thursday night.
Ian McAllister, a conservation director for Pacific Wild, says an RCMP investigation is underway after Eric Boyum, owner of the bear-viewing company Ocean Adventures, discovered a man illegally practicing "bear baiting." The man has not been caught, he said. "To find a trophy hunter hiding in the woods baiting bears is a huge conflict with the sustainable tourism that is being promoted in the Great Bear Rainforest," said McAllister.
Bear hunting is a legal practice in about 80 per cent of protected areas and parks in B.C. It is estimated that when the season closes on June 15, between 100 and 150 Grizzly bears will have been killed for sport. However, bear baiting remains illegal and is punishable by fines and possibly jail time, according to McAllister.
"It's considered 'unfair chase.' It's not considered sporting. It's unethical. It's something that, if it was allowed, it would bring all the bears in from a huge area and they would be killed really indiscriminately," he said.
McAllister added that conservation and animal-welfare groups, as well as First Nations communities, are trying to ban bear hunting on the B.C. coast and Haida Gwaii. "It's the million-dollar question right now: Why is the government allowing trophy hunting to occur in an area where First Nations don't want it, in direct contrast to the real economy here, which is partially based on wildlife viewing and tourism?" RCMP couldn't be reached to discuss the details of the investigation.
Trophy hunting and illegal wildlife trade
Comment: In 2007, the BC government announced a consultation process to review the Wildlife Act, the first major overhaul of the Act in 25 years. Among the changes proposed by the Ministry of Environment, was a liberalization of hunting regulations to meet a provincial goal of generating 20,000 new hunters by 2014. A BC Stats study released in 2005 showed the proportion of resident hunters has dropped to two per cent of the population from six per cent in 1981. There were 83,701 registered hunters in B.C. in 2006. Hunting has clearly lost its appeal. The general public and animal activists alike consider it cruel and unnecessary, and definitely object to it as being portrayed as ‘sport’ or ‘recreation.’
In the fall of 2010 there were numerous news articles regarding the poaching of deer by trophy hunters in Saanich. One deer had an arrow in its hindquarters, another was found with a sawed-off leg, another had been beheaded, and a buck was found injured and bleeding, shot through the midsection, on a homeowner’s front lawn. Imagine the suffering. The individuals that do this have no regard for life or our laws.
Despite BC’s wildlife regulations and some recent amendments, they are ineffective in deterring poachers from carrying on their illegal activities. Additionally, there is no need to increase “hunting opportunities” to accommodate young or new hunters or to enable groups like the First Nations to hunt as part of their ‘culture.’
Whether the hunting is legal or illegal, or of exotic or indigenous wildlife, the fact is that all our animals need to be protected, with substantial fines and jail time for offenders.
The right to bear arms or the right to arm bears?
February 14, 2012 Pregnant rhino killed in 2nd attack
July 28, 2015 Cecil the lion's killer revealed as American dentist
Comment: Serial killers and trophy hunters have many things in common. They are in actuality pathetic sociopathic cowards who try to prove themselves by exerting power, dominance, and control over their victims. It’s the thrill of stalking and taking the life of another, the psychological gratification that these deviants glean from inflicting such torture on another.
As a society, we should find this aberrant behaviour totally unacceptable and for the greater good, eliminate these people.
July 29, 2015 Cecil the Lion Killer Walter James Palmer Has Bear-Related Felony Record
July 29, 2015 update to Cecil the lion: Cecil suffered for 40 hours before he was tracked and shot dead, ending his misery. That this beautiful lion was lured out of a protected park and heartlessly poached, beheaded and skinned by this scumbag dentist has ignited worldwide outrage and condemnation. His office has been closed down, while stuffed animals and flowers have been left outside to honour Cecil. A sign reads: “You are a coward and a killer.” That’s a mild message compared to the thousands of others who are vowing revenge. Palmer also paid a fine in 2009 to settle a sexual harassment claim made against him by a former employee in 2006. Court documents have also emerged showing Palmer was fined $3,000 and given a year's probation after pleading guilty over the illegal killing of a black bear in Wisconsin in 2006 and in 2003 was convicted in a Minnesota court for fishing without a licence. He’s now on the lam. This vile ‘hunter’ has become the hunted.
July 29, 2015 As the world mourned Cecil the lion, five of Kenya’s endangered elephants were slain
Comment: All of us need to change our mindset with regard to our sense of dominance over other species, our sense of entitlement, and how we understand ourselves in relation to our ecological environment. Unless there is a moral and cultural revolution, a crusade to end our holocaust over animals, we will destroy ourselves, and sadly destroy any and all else that crosses our path. Face it, we are the problem.
Related news: Powerful New Film, Blood Lions, Exposes the Horrors of Captive Lion Hunting
BRED FOR THE BULLET - Every single day in South Africa at least two to three captive bred or tame lions are being killed in canned hunts. And hundreds more are slaughtered annually for the lion bone trade. The Blood Lions story is a compelling call to action to have these practices stopped.
October 17, 2016 Pedals the Walking Bear Is Dead, New Jersey Officials Believe
Comment: As gatekeepers of legislation, politicians must be held responsible for their compliance with such atrocities. While ‘hunting’ is legal, a moral crime was committed. That a beloved bipedal bear was coldly and senselessly murdered by a heartless and twisted individual should have society worried. Cubs were left without their mothers. Rise up against such inhumanity, people!
“Whenever I see a photograph of some sportsman grinning over his kill, I am always impressed by the striking moral and esthetic superiority of the dead animal to the live one.” Edward Abbey (1927 - 1989), A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
Related: Bears pay ultimate price of human action while man most dangerous; 'trophy' victims
Hunting - a repugnant "sport"; Costa Rica moves to a ban; US politics, some stats