B.C. hunters who destroyed evidence of poaching handed hefty fines, bans

A conservation officer searches a waste transfer station in connection with a poaching case. (Credit: Facebook/ConservationOfficerService)

Two hunters in B.C. have been fined and banned for poaching a deer – as well as hiding and destroying the evidence – according to officials.

Conservation officers began investigating the pair on Nov. 7, 2023, after receiving a report to a provincial hotline, an update on the case posted to social media Tuesday said.

At the time, regulations only allowed for the hunting of four-point Mule deer but the witness reported having seen “a woman loading a dead three-point Mule deer into her pickup truck” near Cranbrook.

The number of points on a buck refers to the number of tines on its antlers, with older, larger animals having more points.

The woman, when asked, told officers she had killed a four-point buck but that a “bear had come and taken the Mule deer head along with the antlers,” according to the BC COS.

However, when officers searched a nearby waste transfer station – with help from a detection dog – they found “cut-up antler pieces and the remains of a Mule deer carcass,” according to the service. The ensuing investigation found that the woman, Julie Holmes, and a man, Benjamin Roberts, “destroyed and hid evidence” by sawing the antlers into pieces and hiding the animal’s body, the BC COS said.

Holmes pleaded guilty to killing wildlife outside of an open season and obstructing an officer. She was fined $4,000 and banned from hunting for three years, the post from the BC COS said.

Roberts pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing dead wildlife and was handed a $2,000 fine and an 18-month ban.

The BC COS noted that all but $1 of each fine went to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation