Dawson City man jailed for illegal moose hunting

A 49-year-old Dawson City man has been sentenced to 45 days in jail for hunting moose when he shouldn’t have been.

Denis Sevigny pleaded guilty in Dawson City circuit court last month to exceeding his bag limit for moose last fall, as well as hunting without due care and attention within one kilometre of a residence.

Territorial court Judge Karen Ruddy agreed with the joint submission by the defence and Crown lawyers and sentenced Sevigny to 30 days in jail for hunting moose when he’d already shot one a week earlier.

Ruddy also agreed to the recommended 15 additional days for hunting in the dark within one kilometre of the Henderson Corner subdivision.

Territorial Crown prosecutor Lee Kirkpatrick told the Star last week that while Sevigny did not want a hunting prohibition of anything longer than a year, the judge ordered a prohibition of three years.

She also ordered that he take a hunter education and ethical hunting course before his licence is reinstated.

While infractions under the Wildlife Act are dealt with mostly by fines, jail sentences are not unheard off, though they are relatively rare, Kirkpatrick explained.

She suspects the fines together for these two infractions would have come to about $10,000.

The court heard eyewitnesses could see Sevigny in the headlights of his vehicle as he fired at a moose that had crossed the road near Henderson’s Corner at about 10:45 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2008.

Conservation officers learned of the incident the next day, the court heard.

A week later, the investigating officer met Sevigny at the scene. The accused admitted he’d shot at and wounded a moose, though he never did recover the animal.

The court heard the officer did find a dead and partially scavenged moose, but there was no substantial evidence to indicate it was the same moose Sevigny had shot at.

It was also learned during the investigation that he’d already harvested a moose a week prior to the Sept. 21 infractions at Henderson Corner.