By Clark Stork

Store manager fined for illegal meat sales

Dec 20, 2017 | 11:00 AM

A Star City area man will pay a hefty fine following guilty pleas to five charges under the Migratory Birds Convention Act.

In Melfort provincial court Tuesday, David Tschetter admitted to selling goose jerky and sausage illegally out of the meat market on the Star City Hutterite Colony. Conservation officer Rich Hildebrand said the investigation dates back to 2014.

“There seemed to be a lot of wild meat coming in that was maybe more than the residents of the colony could use,” Hildebrand told northeastNOW.

Undercover officers visited the meat shop on several different occasions over a three-year span. Both written and verbal warnings were issued to Tschetter, the store manager. Hildebrand said Tschetter appeared to know the trafficking of goose meat was illegal.

“Each time the undercover officers were told it was illegal to sell the goose meat but it was still sold to the officers,” Hildebrand said.

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Tschetter was fined $500 each on three counts and $5,000 each for two additional charges. The colony must also process 350 pounds of goose meat provided by the Ministry of Environment and donate the meat to local food banks. The animals were collected by the ministry following a separate incident. Hildebrand said the fines in this case are substantial.

“With that you would hope the message gets out that this isn’t taken lightly,” he said.

Hildebrand couldn’t specify how the investigation started in 2014. He said a member of the public could have tipped them off or the ministry noticed a high volume of inventory through a regulation process within the government. 

clark.stork@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @ClarkStork