Six men have been fined a total of $14,750 and handed hunting bans for a range of offences related to the illegal harvest and concealment of a deer in eastern Ontario.
The convictions, announced this week, stem from an investigation by conservation officers under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. Charges included hunting big game without a licence, possessing and transporting illegally killed wildlife, trespassing to hunt, and making false statements to authorities.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says the incident began on Nov. 9, 2022, when a conservation officer on patrol in Herschel Township stopped a vehicle and found one of the occupants was hunting deer without a licence. That led officers to a nearby hunting camp, where a vehicle matching the description in an earlier public complaint about trespassing in Monteagle Township was located.
A subsequent investigation found that DNA evidence from the boots, vehicle, and property of the accused matched that of a deer illegally harvested on private land. Officers determined that one of the individuals had been dropped off at the Monteagle site to hunt without permission and later contacted another member of the group for pickup after an antlerless deer had been killed.
None of the six men had valid licences to harvest an antlerless deer. The animal was later transported to a private property in Herschel Township, where the group possessed the illegally killed wildlife. The ministry said those involved knowingly made false statements in an effort to conceal their actions.
Five of the men were also issued two-year bans prohibiting them from holding an Ontario hunting licence or engaging in any hunting activities.
The cases were heard between October 2024 and January 2025 in the Ontario Court of Justice in Belleville by various justices of the peace.
The province encourages the public to report natural resource violations by calling the ministry’s TIPS line at 1-877-847-7667 or contacting Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS.
