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Penticton  

Residents allege poaching

Residents in the Greyback Mountain Road area are frustrated after two elk were allegedly killed and harvested on private property.

Inspector Tobe Sprado with the BC Conservation Officer Service says the incident is being investigated after two elk were killed, including one that was pregnant, and the meat was harvested. Sprado believes it happened on private property.

"Two elk were harvested on private property, which were retrieved," he said. "Later in the day a third elk was found, but I'd been led to believe it was isolated from the original incident."

The third elk is being assessed by the COS, as to whether it was also shot and whether it was connected to the previous incident.

Details are sparse from the COS, as there is an investigation ongoing on the matter.

The accused individuals, believed by Sprado to be from the Penticton Indian Band, were onsite when the conservation officer and RCMP officers arrived to the scene. Sprado said it was a positive interaction between those individuals and officers on scene.

He couldn't say whether or not any action was taken by officers during the incident.

"We're looking at possible noncompliances under the wildlife act, the trespass act and maybe the firearms act," Sprado said.

"We're leading the investigation, and the route, obviously, is charges or we can also look at possible restorative justice if the evidence would support any or either of both of those."

Sprado says First Nations people have the right under the Indian Act to hunt on Crown lands for food or ceremonial purposes, but not on private property without permission.

Victoria Kryzanowski says she's owned the land where the incident is alleged to have taken place for about 15 years, and has never given permission to anyone to hunt on that land, noting that as a hunter herself, she doesn't hunt on that land.

She adds that the issue has been ongoing for sometime, though Sprado was unable to say whether conservation officers have been called to the property before.



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