Poaching

[cudexter]

you might have seen this on the fuge. makes me sick.

[jgdavis123]

Link doesnt work

[ndbrown213]

please tell me these fockers got locked up?

[cudexter]

must have just been taken down.

I watched it 10 minutes ago.

[dukhuntr]

Gone Now! Says the user removed it.

[mhogancu]

what was it for us that didnt get a chance to click on it?

[cudexter]

two guys driving around shooting ducks with a .22

[HARV]

had a 30:06 too didn't they? saw it last night, I think.

[cudexter]

yeah thats it harv

[quackaddict]

yea i saw it posted on the 'fuge, but of course i can't watch it.

i saw where several folks alerted the green jeans of the north about this.

[Turk 182]

If ya'll ever see any poaching give DNR a call. Dispatcher 1 800 922 5431...speed dial in cell phone helps, quicker the better.

[Tater]

Been in my contacts as OGT for a number of years now

[fisher446]

operation game thief has been speed dial #3 on my phone for years!! think its a good idea, used it a couple times...

[tradorion]

and we thank ya'll for it!!

[DUCKS136]

If ya'll ever see any poaching give DNR a call. Dispatcher 1 800 922 5431...speed dial in cell phone helps, quicker the better.

Is this the number for OGT? So I can put it in the cell for speed dialing

[Turk 182]

Yes. Its our 24hr dispatch center for DNR or if real emergency call 911 and get quicker responce from County S.O. and/or EMS if someone is injuryed. Thx

[cudexter]

SASKATOON - Three young Saskatchewan men have been arrested in connection with a recent YouTube video that created widespread public outrage over its depiction of three males using rifles to shoot ducks on a prairie pond. A spokesman for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment said all three suspects, whose names have not been released, were arrested Saturday morning in a small Saskatoon-area community. Search warrants were also carried out at two of the individuals' residences.

Gary Harrison, manager of the department's special investigations unit, said provincial and federal wildlife officers and the RCMP were also able to pin down the location where the video was shot. "It's close to the community that the arrests were made in," he said.

The men, who are all in their early 20s, will appear in Saskatoon provincial court on Monday to face a variety of charges under provincial and federal wildlife laws. Harrison won't speculate on the motive for the shooting. He also said more investigation is needed of the area where the video was shot. "Anybody who has watched the video knows that some birds have been killed and we really don't know how many that was," he said.

The environment ministry said the content of the video led to a significant number of calls to poacher tip lines in both Saskatchewan and Alberta - a number Harrison calls "unprecedented." The video depicts two of the men firing at the ducks while the third captures their glee on camera. Police and provincial authorities launched an investigation late last week, soon after it appeared on YouTube.

Harrison said the video is very unusual. "When I started we didn't have the Internet and YouTube. I haven't seen one that's been posted like this and had the killing of the birds in a media form like that," he said.

The video sparked widespread public anger and prompted the Toronto-based Humane Society of Canada to post a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of those shown in the Internet posting. Society executive director Michael O'Sullivan said the organization also got calls from people who wanted to help and they were directed to tip lines in both western provinces. O'Sullivan said he is pleased to hear of the arrests. "I would like to commend all the members of the public who provided information. Canadians take cruelty to animals very seriously and they want to help out as best as they can," he said. All three men have been released prior to their first court appearance.

[HARV]

Duck poachers get sentenced
SASKATOON — A Saskatoon judge has ordered three men to pay a total of $16,000 in fines after they admitted to shooting birds and posting a video of the crimes on the Internet.

On Monday afternoon, David Fraser, 30, his 23-year-old brother James Fraser, and their brother-in-law Jeremy Rowlands pleaded guilty to all charges laid against them in connection with the incident.

All three were charged with careless use of a firearm, allowing game flesh to be spoiled or wasted, illegally hunting ducks and grebes out of season, and illegally hunting migratory bird with a rifle. Rowlands also faced a charge of firing a gun from a vehicle.

Provincial court Judge Doug Agnew ordered David and James Fraser to each pay a $5,000 fine, and slapped Rowlands with a $6,000 fine.

Agnew said what the men did was "stupid, reckless, irresponsible, and probably a lot of other adjectives as well."

The men, who live in Cudworth, northeast of Saskatoon, told Agnew they had recently moved to Saskatchewan from Ontario. They're city people, they said, and didn't realize what they were doing was wrong.

On Monday morning, a Crown prosecutor told the court the three men planned to plead guilty to the charges that day. The judge told them they were free to seek legal advice and could change their minds in the meantime, telling the trio there was “no pressure on you at all to dispose of this matter today.”

Conservation officers who attended court told reporters the charges each carry maximum fines of $300,000 and six months in jail. There is no minimum sentence.

The men were charged after media coverage about the YouTube video prompted an investigation and a flood of tips to the province’s anti-poaching line from outraged members of the public.

In an interview with the Calgary Sun over the weekend, David Fraser said the men “honestly didn’t know it was a crime . . . and we’re very sorry about it.”

As they left the courthouse this morning, the men declined comment and tried to hide their faces from a throng of reporters.

The three were arrested Saturday morning, facing charges under federal and provincial wildlife protection laws. Ministry of Environment conservation officers and Environment Canada wildlife enforcement officers made the arrests.

The four-minute video emerged earlier this week on YouTube and showed three men giggling while gunning down ducklings from a parked car.

The video sparked widespread public outrage and prompted the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta and the Canadian Humane Society to offer rewards for information that could help authorities identify the three men.

[Turk 182]

Thanks for the public citizens who called expressing their anger and displeasure of those events. Need more of that.

[Palmetto Bug]

Slap on the wrist. The fines should be cripplingly high for this. How could anyone, city boys or not, not think what they were doing was illegal and unethical?