Blood-covered snowmobiles, a handgun, an Albertan, two Saskatchewan residents and a dead coyote. The players and the pieces were a fatal mix for the animal and an expensive lesson for the people.
Gordon Deck, 34, and Brian Deck, 38, of Denzil, Sask., and Harold Leibel, 39, of Bodo, Alta., were fined $2,300 in total after pleading guilty to killing a coyote. The three were convicted of four Saskatchewan Wildlife Act violations and one Canadian Criminal Code offence in a Unity, Sask., courtroom in February. In addition to the fine, a .22 calibre handgun was forfeited by its Albertan owner.
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Tipped off by a local resident, conservation officers from North Battleford, Sask., pursued the three snowmobilers by road. Conservation officers later confronted the men as the suspects refueled the snow machines at a farm in the Salvador, Sask. area.
Handgun found
Lying in the bed of a half-ton truck was a dead coyote – shot with a .22 handgun found hidden nearby. Hair and blood samples were taken from the tracks of the snowmobiles.
“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. In this region we have three or four other sets of charges going to court already … some of them much worse in nature with large numbers of animals being killed,” said David Coombes, of Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management in Saskatoon.
Higher fur prices and warm weather have contributed to the number of incidents, say conservation officers.
