By Kellah Lavoie

Trophy poaching on the rise

Oct 23, 2010 | 3:01 PM

There is a rise illegal poaching for trophy antlers in the province.
Gary Provencher, a local conservation officer, said over the last 20 years the number of people killing deer and just taking the head has gradually increased. It is at an all-time high.
“The world record typical whitetail deer was shot in Biggar, Sask. in 1993, and kind of since then, Saskatchewan has become more and more popular for guys not only from Saskatchewan, but the states and all around the world coming here to hunt our whitetail deer,” he said.
“So it’s pushed the value up of deer antlers… the price of a good set of deer antlers has certainly shot up in the last couple of years. “
He said every year they find more and more headless deer.
“(They) just cut the head off and they can try to resell it through the black market to people that say, want a big deer head to hang on their wall to say that they shot it or something,” he said.
Provencher said he couldn’t come up with any solid numbers, but knows the number of Turn in Poachers (TIP) calls they get every years goes up.
While it is legal to take a deer off the side of the road for dog food, you need a permit. If the animal has a nice rack, the Ministry of Environment will keep it.
Provencher said they check out every tip and between tips, tracks and bullet casing, they catch most of the poachers who want their trophy, and it’s not cheap. He said once you start adding the offenses together, the fine will start at about $1,000 – it only goes up from there.
“Generally they’re out of season, so that’s an out of season charge, and every animal involved there’s a $500 fee if it’s what we call a trophy animals… usually it’s a waste of game charge as well, because they have taken the antlers and left the carcass there so generally that tacks on $500. So usually we are looking at thousands of dollars in fines if we find something out there,” he said.
He encourages everyone who sees this happening to call the TIP hotline at 1-800-667-7561.
“If people do see a violation out there whether is a headless deer or something else (call us), our main hunting season will be on pretty quick here in November, our main deer season,” he said
klavoie@rawlco.com