Three men have been fined a total of $14,500 for illegal moose hunting activities involving a cow moose that occurred in October 2021 in the City of Kawartha Lakes.
An Orillia man pleaded guilty and was fined $4,000 for unlawfully hunting a cow moose without a licence and $2,000 for unlawfully using a licence, or component of a licence, issued to someone else. In addition, he received a one-year hunting licence suspension.
A Cayuga man pleaded guilty and was fined $4,000 for unlawfully hunting a cow moose without a licence and $500 for failing to submit his moose hunter report by December 29. In addition, he received a one-year hunting licence suspension.
A man from Bracebridge pleaded guilty and was fined $3,000 for enabling someone else to unlawfully use a licence, or component of a licence, issued to himself and $1,000 for making a false statement in a document.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) says a conservation officer was conducting an ATV patrol on Oct. 21, 2021, in the vicinity of Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park and checked a hunting group heading home.
The ministry said the group had been hunting moose, and they had harvested a cow and calf moose, both of which had already been brought to the butcher.
"It was later determined that the Bracebridge man, the cow moose tag holder, did not go hunting and had given his tag to one of the other hunters. The hunting group decided they would use the cow tag if they saw a cow moose, despite the tag holder not being there," the MNRF said in a statement on Friday.
One of the men shot a cow moose on Oct. 18, 2021.
The ministry said the Bracebridge man later provided false information on his mandatory moose hunter report stating he had been moose hunting for one day. The man from Cayuga did not submit his mandatory moose hunter report.
Justice of the Peace Herbert Radtke heard the case remotely in the Ontario Court of Justice, Lindsay, on October 17, 2022, and the verdict was released by the MNRF on Friday.
Banner image - supplied (MNRF)
