Richard Yntema has farmed fallow deer since 1991.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)

ENDERBY - A North Okanagan farmer whose herd of game deer was shot by conservation officers in 2016 over compliance issues has pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of wildlife and failing to secure the animals.

Richard Yntema says he reluctantly made the pleas Monday, May 28, in Salmon Arm Provincial Court.

“They (government) could have made this drag on and on. Every day I have to go to court, I have to shut down my business,” Yntema, who represented himself, says.

While initially adamant about fighting the charges, he says the case was plagued by delays and costly to pursue.

Yntema was charged last summer, but the offences date back to 2014 and 2015. At issue was Yntema’s herd of fallow deer, a non-native breed that can be farmed legally in B.C. — with a license. Yntema had a license in the past, but the Province refused to renew it in 2016 due to ongoing compliance issues related to deer escaping from his property. Yntema sold the deer meat to high-end restaurants and wineries in the region.

In October of 2016, government agencies executed a search and seizure warrant at his farm in Enderby, ultimately euthanizing nearly 30 deer.

Conservation officers and other government workers at Yntema's farm in Enderby on Oct. 6, 2016.

Image Credit: Richard Yntema

“I get that they were trying to get me to comply with the regulatory side of things but how they went about it was simply wrong and dangerous — I found tranquilizer darts in the field fully loaded with the immobilization drug,” he says, adding he was worried about his daughter stepping on it.

Yntema was scheduled to stand trial on three charges carrying a potential $5,000 fine starting May 28, however he agreed to plead guilty to two charges and accept a $1,000 fine instead.

If money wasn’t an issue, Yntema says he would have fought it to the end.

“It’s just sad that we support local agriculture, the whole local food movement, and here we have a government that has deemed it necessary to basically wipe out the deer due to regulatory actions,” Yntema says.

The courts also banned him from having fallow deer for a period of two years, but Yntema doubts he will ever farm them again. He has no breeding stock left — the whole herd was euthanized — and isn’t optimistic about the province issuing him a game license ever again.

A provincial wildlife biologist told iNFOnews.ca in 2016 that Yntema was given many opportunities to comply with the regulations before the search warrant was executed. At the time, she said there were complaints about deer escaping off the property and the Ministry of Environment was concerned about the animals establishing an invasive, wild population.

Officers first tried to catch the deer for relocation, but only managed to capture two of them, wildlife biologist Helen Schwantje said. The rest were euthanized and the meat was either donated to a food bank or First Nation. Fallow deer populations have gotten out of control in other areas of the province, such as Mayne Island where it’s considered a crisis, she said.

Yntema, for his part, admits he was out of compliance on some issues but says he was trying to fix it. He also downplays the Ministry’s concerns about the deer getting into the wild.

“I always hear the word “invasive.” It’s a farmed animal. Cows are invasive species, pigs are invasive species, they’re not natural to the country,” he says.

He claims that while fallow deer could mate with wild deer, the resulting offspring would be asexual, like a mule born to a horse and donkey.

In spite of his guilty pleas, Yntema says he’s not done fighting the government. He intends to file complaints with multiple government ministries over their handling of the incident, as well as the Office of the Ombudsperson.

“There has to be some accountability. They need to give me a reason for why they did what they did,” he says.

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