A north island man appeared in a Campbell River court room on Feb. 23, 2015 and pleaded guilty under the Wildlife Act to killing a moose the day before the open season.
The case originated in the fall of 2014 when conservation officers received a tip from a hunter who had found remains of a moose carcass which seemed cold on opening morning near Burns Lake.
Conservation officers attended the hunting camp on opening morning of the six-day season where the bull moose was hanging, and interviewed the suspects.
The case was solved thanks to an everyday meat thermometer with which the officers checked the internal temperature of the moose meat. Since the suspect’s moose was only 21 C on the meat pole around noon – and a moose should be around 40 C when killed – officers knew that the suspect’s moose was illegal.
The bull moose was simply not warm enough to have only been killed at first light six hours earlier. When confronted with the scientific evidence, the suspects admitted fault and the moose was seized.
At the conclusion of the case, the North Island man was sentenced to pay a fine of $2875 and is now prohibited from hunting for the next 18 months.
The second member of the hunting party was issued an additional $230 fine for assisting with bringing the illegal moose back to camp. The moose meat seized in this case was donated to a charity in the Burns Lake area.
The conservation officer service encourages the public to report any fish, wildlife or pollution violation to their twenty four hour hotline at 1-877-952-7277.
