The bodies of 142 migratory birds were found dumped on private land near Saskatoon earlier this month, provoking anger from hunters and wildlife groups across the province.
The perpetrators haven’t been found. Conservation officers in Saskatoon released a photo of a truck they said was related to the case, which was reported on Oct. 16 on private land about 30 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon, near Patience Lake.
An independent tip line, SaskTips, is offering a $2,000 cash reward for information that leads to an arrest.
“Unfortunately, I would say that it happens all too frequently year to year,” said Chris Maier, an inspector with the Conservation Officer Service. “It just comes down to some hunters that aren’t being responsible, and then they end up wasting the animals afterwards because they don’t want to deal with them.”
Maier said the combination of the various fines for trespassing, littering and not harvesting animals, multiplied by the number of birds and surcharges, would likely lead to a fine of more than $20,000.
“It’s disgusting,” said Jordan Rowswell, the owner of 12 Gauge Outfitting in Battleford, Sask. “It’s an absolute waste of not just meat, but a resource.”
“It gives every hunter out there a bad name.”
Rowswell also serves on the board of the Saskatchewan Commission of Professional Outfitters. He said the province’s outfitting companies, which organize hunting trips, are held to a high standard and likely wouldn’t risk losing their licences by dumping animals.
Saskatchewan hunters have a variety of options for dealing with the animals they don’t consume themselves, he said. Many freeze the meat for later use, while others donate the meat to family and food banks.
The incident raised questions among some social media users about freelance hunters who do not hunt with outfitting groups, and about the ease with which some hunters can accumulate snow geese.
While hunters can only collect 20 snow geese in a single day of hunting, there is no limit to the number they can possess overall. This is because snow geese and Ross’s geese are classified as overabundant by the Canadian government.
For all other ducks, including mallards, pintail ducks or Canada geese, hunters can only collect eight a day, and possess 24 in total at any one time.
Maier said that of the 142 animal carcasses found by Patience Lake, 129 of them were snow geese. The rest were various ducks and a single Canada goose.
Daryl Crabbe, the executive director of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, said he believes there’s a growing problem of freelance hunters coming to the province.
“We have somewhat of a rampant illegal outfitting component built into Saskatchewan now,” Crabbe said.
“Because of the restrictions that have been placed on the term licences in Alberta and Manitoba, we have seen an unprecedented increase in hunters from other jurisdictions, predominantly the United States, this year.”
Alberta and Manitoba have restrictions on the number of days non-Canadian hunters can hunt migratory birds. They cap out at six consecutive days in Alberta and seven in Manitoba. Saskatchewan does not have similar term limits.
Crabbe said the lack of a term limit has enabled groups of American hunters to hunt snow geese for weeks on end, collecting hundreds of bird carcasses they can’t easily dispose of.
When asked about the theory of non-resident hunters, Maier didn’t rule it out, but he said there is no definitive evidence that the perpetrator is from outside Saskatchewan.
“It could be an outfitter. It could be a guide working for an outfitter. It could be a friend of a Saskatchewan resident who came up or it could be a freelancer or it could be a Saskatchewan resident who has a U.S. plated vehicle,” he said.
