On Jan. 14 2014 an Okanagan man appeared in a Burns Lake court room and pleaded guilty to using another person’s hunting licence and to exceeding the bag limit for moose under the Wildlife Act.
The case originated in the fall of 2013 when Conservation Officers checked a hunting camp near Helene Lake. While checking three moose carcasses in camp, the officers became suspicious when a member of the hunting party was unable to point out which moose he had killed.
Further investigation revealed that the Okanagan man had killed all three moose and used other hunter’s licences to cover off the harvest. At the conclusion of the case the Okanagan man was sentenced to pay a fine of $3000 and is now prohibited from hunting or being in the company of anyone engaged in hunting for the next two years. The two other members of the hunting party were each issued $575 in fines bringing the total penalty to $4150. The meat of the three moose seized and was redistributed to low income families in the Burns Lake area.