Elk poaching case near Hyattville closed

 

August 11, 2016



CODY — The investigation and prosecution of a case locally known as the “Black Friday” event involving the illegal harvest of nine elk near Hyattville last hunting season has come to a close.

The case began Nov. 29, 2015, when Greybull Game Warden Bill Robertson received information from a concerned hunter who observed several dead elk near the Spiney Point area of Trapper Canyon north of Hyattville. An investigation at the scene confirmed that six elk had been shot and left to waste. “The incident likely occurred two days earlier which was ‘Black Friday’, the day after Thanksgiving,” Robertson said. “Because snow had recently fallen and covered the area, very little evidence was recovered other than .308, .300, .243 and 25.06 shell casings. There was also evidence indicating other elk were killed at the same time, but had been removed from the area by all-terrain vehicles.”

To help gain more information about the case, Game and Fish issued a news release about the incident. Three days after the information was released, Robertson received a report stating that a young man from Glenrock had been talking about the incidence at a Greybull tavern on Nov. 27, 2015. Then on Dec. 6, 2015, a family from Moorcroft and Sundance contacted the Game and Fish to confess to the incident. Game and Fish received written statements prepared by several family members. In their statements, they confessed to their involvement in the over-limit of elk. Their statements also implicated the man at the tavern and another man from Gillette. “A total of 10 participants were identified,” Robertson said.

The statements indicated six hunters in the party were pursuing elk along the Trapper Canyon rim near Spiney Point late in the afternoon on Nov. 27, 2015. Several family members were parked some distance away observing the area with binoculars and communicating with the hunters on the rim as to the location of elk they could see. It had been pre-arranged that if the hunters encountered elk, they would fill the others’ licenses for them. When a large group of elk exited the security of the timber after one hunter encountered them, the shooting began. The elk ran in circles and the hunters continued to shoot into the group. A total of sixteen elk lay dead as a result. The hunters retrieved ten elk from the field but only seven of the sixteen elk killed had been harvested legally.

Sixteen citations were issued to the group and one warning citation was issued to a juvenile. A Big Horn County judge accepted guilty pleas from all defendants. Fines totaled $5,100 and the judge ordered six defendants to pay $9,500 in restitution to the Wyoming Wildlife Protector’s Association (Stop Poaching Fund). The defendants collectively lost 10 years of hunting privileges.

Robertson said party hunting has never been legal in Wyoming. “This is a classic case of what can go wrong when people choose to violate this law. All hunters must take their own game and not fill or attempt to fill the licenses of other hunters. In addition, hunters must remember to follow up their shots and if they are unsure if they made a good shot, they need to stop and access the situation,” Robertson said. “That is how true sportsmen hunt.” 

 
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