NIPIGON – Two Ontario residents have been fined a total of $2,250 for charges related to illegal moose hunting. Renee Poirier of Marathon was fined $1,000 for unlawfully hunting cow moose and $500 for failing to immediately attach a game seal to a harvested animal at the kill site. Matthew Mootrey of Coronna was fined $500 for unlawfully hunting cow moose and $250 for failing to notify his hunting party that he had killed a moose.
The court heard that on October 12, 2010, Poirier and Mootrey were part of a four-member moose hunting party on Camp 72 Road in Sandra Township.
The group had agreed to hunt for a cow moose together using Poirier’s adult game seal. Mootrey shot and killed a cow moose. When he could not immediately contact Poirier to attach and notch her cow moose tag to the animal, he sent a member of his hunting party to look for her. Poirier was found at Pasha Lake cabins, about 15.3 kilometres away from the kill site. As Poirier was not hunting at the time of the kill, and was more than five kilometres away from the kill site, the use of her game seal was not valid.
Justice of the Peace Ray Zuliani heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice, Nipigon, on February 7, 2010.