The creator of a Canadian reality show has been ordered to pay a fine of $8,000 (US $7,365) for possessing wood bison and musk oxen that were illegally hunted in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
In March 2003, Thomas Pigeon went hunting in northern Canada to shoot some episodes of his show "Canada in the Rough."
But his crew drove their all-terrain vehicles too close to their game, making it easier to kill the animals.
Five years ago, an informant told Ontario wildlife managers about the hunting trophies that had been brought to that province. Officials seized videotapes showing illegal hunting activities, said a statement issued by Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources.
Too much time has elapsed since the events took place to press criminal charges for illegal hunt. But investigators used the unedited video recordings to establish their case for illegal possession of game, said Steve Aubry of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. When investigators compared the broadcast episode to the raw footage, "all evidence of the motorized vehicles, the snowmobiles and sleds, were certainly edited from the final product," he said in the statement.
In Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, it is illegal for hunters of musk oxen to approach the animals within 1.5 kilometers, or 0.93 miles.
Those scenes were removed from the show's final cuts. The final production makes it appear that the hunters were engaged in fair chase, approaching the animals on foot before shooting them, the ministry's statement said.
Pigeon pleaded guilty to all charges.
A justice of the peace heard the case on May 2 in Milton, Ontario.
In addition to paying the fine, Pigeon was ordered to forfeit the mounted trophies and the original video recordings of the hunt.
This story is posted on Alaska Dispatch as part of Eye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.