Three Metro Vancouver men have been handed 10-year hunting bans and $18,000 worth of penalties after they were found to have clubbed a marmot to death and used spotlights to hunt a pregnant deer at night.
The violations of the Wildlife Act, ruled on at a Kamloops provincial court and described by the BC Conservation Officer Service (BCCOS) on social media Thursday, date back to May 2020, when Kyaw Aue Thah, Boe Boe Gyi, and Ywa Baw Mu went on a hunting trip about an hour north of Kamloops.
When they arrived somewhere near Darfield, B.C., there was no open hunting season for deer at the time.
The trio elected to use spotlights to hunt at night. Ultimately, they shot two deer, including one the service said “was later discovered to be pregnant with twin fawns.”
“Several grouse and a marmot were also shot. One of the men clubbed the wounded marmot to death,” said the service in its post.
The men were later stopped in a BCCOS compliance check, where officers seized their firearms and the dead animals.
The three men were ultimately sentenced on 55 breaches of the Wildlife Act, according to an online court database. Another man remains at large on a warrant.
The BCCOS says most of the money from the penalties will fund the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, a group that helps fund conservation projects and educates the public about B.C.’s natural world.
