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

A British Columbia man has been banned from hunting sheep in the province for three years after he illegally killed a bighorn ram and lied to authorities about where the hunt took place.

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

The service says Proulx had the animal inspected as required by law a month later and told inspectors the ram was harvested from an area where it was open season on bighorns.

But the service says global positioning co-ordinates showed it was killed in a closed area.

The service says Proulx admitted to lying about the location of the hunt when officers spoke to him in March 2024, and he has since pleaded guilty to making a false statement to official record keepers under the Wildlife Act.

Proulx was fined $13,000 and cannot hunt or accompany other hunters for hunting any type of sheep for the next three years in B.C.

The service says much of the fine will go to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, while Proulx had to forfeit all wildlife parts seized in the case to the Crown and retake an outdoor recreation conservation program.

"The harvest of a mature ram from this closed area is contrary to conservation objectives and resulted in an overall harvest that exceeded the annual allowable harvest established to guide sustainable harvest levels," the service says in its statement.

The service says the Fraser River area, which includes Lillooet, supports about half of B.C.'s California bighorn sheep population.

It says a provincial senior wildlife biologist who submitted an impact statement to the courts in this case found that the value of an opportunity for non-resident hunters to harvest one wild bighorn ram in B.C. has risen to more than $150,000 in the last few years.