Four men who illegally killed the Bighorn sheep in western Alberta were fined $ 26,000 combined and each received one -year hunting prohibitions; The penalties that some say they are not steep enough.
According to an Alberta Fish and Wildlife Facest Facebook publication, a group of poachers illegally killed at least four Bighorn sheep, including a subsegal ram, in September in the old Greg Mining sites and Cardinal River near Cadomin, Alta., About 320 kilometers southwest Edmonton.
The semi-stirred Bighorn sheep team, Lorne Hindbo, told CBC News that the area is known for being a Bighorn sheep habitat, but it is well controlled and has been closed to hunt for decades.
“The nerve … is almost like driving towards Jasper and doing it,” he said.
An Alberta Fish and Wildlife spokesman told CBC News that their officers regularly plan and carry out proactive application patrols to address known issues and guarantee compliance with the resource legislation of the province that supports the conservation and protection of natural resources.
In social networks, the Government said that one of those patrols in the remote area finally led to condemnations against the four men of the Alberta center.
The researchers analyzed DNA and bullet samples, linking murders with individuals.
Some of the charges faced by men included hunting without a license, wildlife waste and search.
They declared themselves guilty of illegal wildlife possession in the Provincial Court of Hinton last month.
Each is suspended from hunting for one year, and they have to complete the hunter education course for the first time before requesting recreational hunting licenses, said Alberta Sisk and Wildlife spokesman.
Two of the men were fined $ 10,000, another received a fine of $ 4,000 and the fourth received a fine of $ 2,000. They said that all “wildlife articles” seized throughout the investigation were delivered to the crown.
But the fines are not high enough to deter furtive hunting, said John E. Marriott, a wildlife photographer in Canmore, high., And co -founder of the exposed wildlife conservation.
Sheep hunts can cost tens of thousands of dollars, he said. A permit that gives permission to hunters to hunt throughout the year for a single Bighorn sheep recently noted the Alberta government $ 400,000 US in an auction.
Marriott said that $ 26,000 is a misery and that one year’s hunting prohibitions are even more frustrating.
“We should be looking prohibitions of five, 10, 20 years, as well as prohibitions of firearms,” he said.
Ruiping Luo, a conservation specialist at the Alberta Disylades Association, also said that the fines do not reach far enough.
“We should consider that we spend millions of conservation every year, just to try to maintain these landscapes and maintain wild life in them,” Luo said.
“At least, perhaps it should be established in a couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars for licenses, but probably more than that.”
She said that poaching makes it difficult for the province to manage wildlife sustainably.
