WHITEHORSE — A Yukon man who illegally killed two wolves in a residential area of Whitehorse has been fined $6,500.
Clayton Thomas, 35, was also handed a two-year hunting ban by a territorial court judge.
Minutes before being sentenced, Thomas told the judge he was protecting his family when he shot the animals in 2013.
The Tahltan First Nation member argued at trial that he had inherent aboriginal rights to hunt and harvest wolves in the Whitehorse area.
Judge Donald Luther ruled last December that Thomas had not proven such a right. He convicted him of hunting wolves in an area where he wasn’t permitted to do so, careless use of a firearm and trafficking in wildlife.
Thomas plans to appeal the decision.
Crown lawyer Lee Kirkpatrick had asked for a fine of up to $10,000.
She told a sentencing hearing Monday that Thomas did not contact conservation officers before he shot the wolves, which she said were not threatening him directly.
Thomas also failed to report the kills under the self-defence provision of the Wildlife Act, Kirkpatrick said.
Court heard that days before the kill, a wolf ate a dog belonging to Thomas’s neighbour.
Thomas shot multiple rounds within a kilometre of homes in the Mount Sima subdivision, using bullets that don’t expand upon impact but pass through a target, with the potential to travel and hit something else, Kirkpatrick said.
She said Thomas, who has a previous conviction for wasting meat, for which he was fined $750, is a threat to residents in the subdivision.
Thomas filed a letter from a counsellor he’d been seeing about the impact of the search by conservation officers.
The May 1, 2013 search yielded several weapons and the carcasses of the two wolves he had illegally killed.
An agreed statement of facts shed some light on how events unfolded.
Officers refused to remove their boots and searched in areas which Mr. Thomas felt were private and not likely to reveal any evidence related to wolf kills
“Mr. Thomas and his wife were very upset by the way in which the search was conducted,” it said.
“Officers refused to remove their boots and searched in areas which Mr. Thomas felt were private and not likely to reveal any evidence related to wolf kills.”
Thomas will have 18 months to pay the fine. The hunting ban will continue after two years if it has not been paid.
He can still hunt pursuant to First Nation subsistence rights, Luther said.
He ordered that one of two rifles seized be returned.
Whitehorse Star