B.C. man gets hunting ban, $13k penalty after illegally killing bighorn ram

The Canadian Press

· Posted: May 16, 2025 6:52 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

A British Columbia man has been banned from hunting sheep successful the state for 3 years aft helium illegally killed a bighorn ram and lied to authorities astir wherever the hunt took place.

B.C.'s Conservation Officer Service says successful a connection posted to Facebook that Heith Proulx of Kelowna killed the ram successful October 2023 adjacent Pavilion Lake, 28 kilometres northwest of Lillooet.

The work says Proulx had the carnal inspected arsenic required by instrumentality a period aboriginal and told inspectors the ram was harvested from an country wherever it was unfastened play connected bighorns.

But the work says planetary positioning co-ordinates showed it was killed successful a closed area.

The work says Proulx admitted to lying astir the determination of the hunt erstwhile officers spoke to him successful March 2024, and helium has since pleaded blameworthy to making a mendacious connection to authoritative grounds keepers nether the Wildlife Act.

Proulx was fined $13,000 and cannot hunt oregon travel different hunters for hunting immoderate benignant of sheep for the adjacent 3 years in B.C.

The work says overmuch of the good volition spell to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, portion Proulx had to forfeit each wildlife parts seized successful the lawsuit to the Crown and retake an outdoor recreation conservation program.

"The harvest of a mature ram from this closed country is contrary to conservation objectives and resulted successful an wide harvest that exceeded the yearly allowable harvest established to usher sustainable harvest levels," the work says successful its statement.

The work says the Fraser River area, which includes Lillooet, supports astir fractional of B.C.'s California bighorn sheep population.

It says a provincial elder wildlife biologist who submitted an interaction connection to the courts successful this lawsuit recovered that the worth of an accidental for non-resident hunters to harvest 1 chaotic bighorn ram in B.C. has risen to much than $150,000 successful the past fewer years.