A Michigan man has been fined for shooting and leaving a bear to spoil during the 2010 bear hunting season.Christopher Beckman, of Linden, MI, was convicted at trial and fined $1,000 for allowing the meat from a bear he shot to spoil. He is also prohibited from hunting black bear in Ontario for one year.
Court heard that in September 2010 Ministry of Natural Resources conservation officers and officers from the Canada Border Services Agency, conducting a joint force export check at the Sault Ste. Marie border crossing, found Beckman with only the hide of a black bear he had shot in the Iron Bridge area. The meat from the bear was later discovered abandoned in a wooded area.
Beckman was also fined $250 for failing to attach a game seal to his bear immediately after it was shot.
Justice of the Peace Monique Sequin heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice, Blind River, on May 2, 2012.
The ministry reminds hunters that if they harvest a game animal it is an offence to leave the flesh to spoil and that any harvested bear must be tagged with a game seal immediately after it has been killed and at the kill location.
