Duck poachers sentenced

Talk about swift justice. Within three weeks of posting a despicable video on YouTube titled “Duck Hunt” that featured three men blasting away at sitting ducks from a car (mentioned in this space yesterday and last week), the trio responsible pleaded guilty to 15 charges yesterday afternoon, August 10.

David Fraser, 30, his brother James Fraser, 23 and Jeremy Rowlands all of Cudworth, Saskatchewan, were fined a total of $16,000 and banned from hunting for three years. Two rifles were also seized and forfeited to the Crown. All three men had been charged with hunting migratory birds out of season, using and rifle to hunting migratory birds, careless discharge of a firearm and allowing edible game to be wasted. Rowlands was also charged with discharging a firearm from a vehicle.

Judging by the comments on the related story on cbc.ca (there are 10 pages of them!), many folks aren’t happy with the punishment. I’d be interested from hearing from you. Did these guys get what they deserve? Or did they get off lucky?