A Mule deer.
Image Credit: commons.wikimedia.org
January 23, 2016 - 2:30 PM
KELOWNA – A Kelowna man was fined $1,500 for shooting at a deer decoy in Joe Rich in 2014.
Aron Meier, 41, was deer hunting with his 11-year-old son and a cousin on Nov. 1, 2014 when he came into a clearing bisected by a logging road.
At one end of the road was an immature moose and at the other a three-point Mule deer buck.
Meier shot three times at the deer but it didn't fall over. Instead Meier was approached by a Conservation officer who had been watching from the treeline.
He was arrested under the Wildlife Act and released. On Friday, Jan. 22 he pleaded guilty in Kelowna Provincial Court.
Judge Gregory Koturbash acknowledged Meier deserved substantially less than the provincially mandated maximum fine of $100,000 because he was a first time offender and he admitted his guilt.
“It’s not an insignificant offence,” Koturbash said.
Meier, a father of 6 with one foster child, says he hunts for the food not the trophy.
“There was some pressure on me to bring some meat home. I was certain it was a four point,” he said.
The season for three point bucks ended Oct. 31, the day before Meier shot at the decoy.
He was ordered to pay $1,250 of his $1,500 fine to a Conservation trust.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016