 |
magazine / ma99
 |
March/April 1999 issue |
|
|
|
FEATURE
Hunting poachers
Ontario sets its sights on wildlife traffickers
By Pauline Comeau with photography by Lori Kiceluk
 |
| Roadside
bust: conservation officers arrest two men for using a spotlight to
hunt moose north of Nipigon, Ont. Complaints of night hunting led to
the operation, in which a moose decoy was planted in the woods. Using
a million-candle-power light, the suspects realized the moose was a
decoy and fled. After a short chase, they were arrested and their rifle
and ammunition were seized. |
TIME: Midnight …
DATE:October 8, 1996 …
LOCATION: Near the Gravel River Provincial Nature Reserve in Northern Ontario.
There are only forest beasts and the gods to bear witness on
this cool night as five pallbearers shuffle through a jack pine plantation,
far from the road’s prying eyes. The procession is slow and awkward as
each man struggles with his fistful of orange tarp and the 225-kilogram bulk
jostling between them.
 |
| Animal
decoys, DNA analysis, undercover teams — these are the anti-poaching weapons
used by Mike Kenny (top left) and Paul Dennis, conservation officers with
the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. An elite unit of technical and
undercover specialists has been expanded to help investigate complex cases
of commercial trade in wild meat and animal parts. |
Now the real work begins. The tarp is opened to reveal
a sad excuse for a bull moose. Its eyes are dull and its gaping stomach cavity,
devoid of fluids and viscera, is drying. It is a young animal — two years
old at most, about the size of a small horse, and some previous mishap has left
it missing one antler. Not much of a find by most counts, but pay dirt for these
Ontario conservation officers who are at the apex of a sting operation and one
of the most complex poaching investigations in the province’s history.
The conservation officers hope to trace the planted
bull moose through DNA tests to a $70-a-plate Toronto-area banquet where more
than 1,200 people will be served up to a dozen deer and moose plus other wild
game. Selling wild meat or otherwise using it for proffit contravenes Ontario’s
Game and Fish Act. You cannot even use wild game "in the hope for financial
gain." The deer and wild boar on the banquet menu could be farmed animals,
but moose is not farmed in Canada. If moose will be served, it will be wild.
The contents of several white bags — moose guts
— are dumped in a pile nearby. The goal at this moment is to "make
things bloody and fresh looking," explains Paul Dennis, a conservation
officer for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
in Terrace Bay. He and long-time partner Mike Kenny are the lead investigators
on the case. Their accomplices are undercover conservation officers who have
been posing as hunters at a lodge on the north shore of Lake Superior.
The team is staging the kind of kill site that typically
occurs after a legitimate hunter shoots a moose, guts it, leaves the carcass
where it fell, and goes for help to haul it out of the bush.
Removing the guts slows decomposition of the meat.
The next day, the suspects will be lured here. The undercover
officers have posed as hunters who have a licence to hunt a moose calf. The
suspects are licensed to kill both a bull and a calf, but are particularly in
search of the meatier bull to help supply a banquet. The investigators have
promised to hand over a bull if they come across one. In exchange the suspects
have agreed to hand over a calf to the investigators. (This stretches the legality
of "party hunting," where a group of hunters pools licences and works
the same area at the same time.)
top
|
|
|
