Four men from southern Ontario, including two from Simcoe County and fined a total of $10,500 for multiple hunting violations in October of 2024.
The case involving Joseph Burton of Ramara and Mark Thompson of Orillia was heard in Lindsay, on August 12. The two accomplices were Jason Atherton of St. Catherines and Jeffery Atherton of Dundas. Jason Atherton was given a one-year hunting suspension and fined $4,500, while the other three offenders were fined $2,000 each.
Conservation officers conducted an inspection at a moose hunting camp on Hadlington Road in Monmouth Township and determined that Jason Atherton had shot an adult cow moose the day before (October 22, 2024).
He had also used the tag of a non-present or non-participating group member and the group failed to meet the proper requirements of party hunting.
The next morning, Jeffery Atherton, Burton, and Mark Thompson loaded the moose and brought it to a location in the Hamilton area, wheren it was skinned and prepared for butchering.
All three were fined for unlawfully transporting wildlife, while Jason Atherton's offence was the unlawful hunting of the animal without a licence and using a fraudulent tag.
