Lodge owner decries killing of caribou on property, but others caution against rush to judgment

WARNING: This story contains graphic details.

The owner of a remote hunting lodge in northern Manitoba says he wants answers after he found a "mass slaughter" of caribou and severe property damage there last month, but police warn that images circulating of the dead animals might not tell the entire story.

Nick Scigliano, the U.S.-based owner of Nueltin Lake Lodge, says he discovered dozens of dead caribou and extensive property damage during an April 11 check of the site, which is about 30 kilometres south of the Manitoba-Nunavut border.

Scigliano returned to the lodge on April 18 with police and conservation officers to get a closer look at the damage on the ground, he said in a Tuesday news release. Pregnant cows and fetuses were among the dozens of caribou carcasses, he said. 

Scigliano is now urging police and the Manitoba government to take action to "restore law and order."

"This is not subsistence hunting. They killed wastefully and left dead carcasses on my doorstep. These images will haunt me forever," Scigliano said in the release.

RCMP are investigating the property damage at the lodge while conservation officers look into potentially wasted meat.

Manitoba RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Paul Manaigre described the police investigation as "different and difficult," mainly due to the isolation of the area.

"The big issue is just trying to talk to everyone," he told CBC News in a May 5 interview.

"You've got suspects that could come from 200, 300, 400 kilometres away, and is it possible they might not even be part of this hunting group? Absolutely. There's so many variables at play."

However, the hunters are believed to be from nearby First Nations communities, he said.

"When I say close, you're probably looking, I think, within 100 to 200 kilometres, so this is still considerable distance even on snowmobiles. I think that's probably the difficult aspect, is identifying those that are using the area."

The lodge is located in Nueltin Lake Provincial Park, which was established in 2010 mainly to protect caribou winter migration routes that connect the boreal forest to the tundra where caribou cows travel to give birth, according to the Manitoba Lodges and Outfitters Association.

The barren-ground caribou in the area are not at risk but their population is in decline, a 2017 study by the Nunavut government found.

"It should go without question that harvesting female caribou during that late winter season when the cows are preparing to have their young displays an utter disregard for the animal or its conservation, regardless of one's race," the outfitters' association said in a Tuesday statement.

The association says it has been pushing the province to introduce a unified big-game management system for all hunters in Manitoba, which would include a ban on harvesting females.

CBC News has reviewed verified images and video, taken on April 11 and 18, of the caribou carcasses left outside Nueltin Lake Lodge.

A two-minute April 11 video shows an aerial view of the lodge from a helicopter window. It's a picturesque scene to start, showing the lodge overlooking a treeline and snowy lake, but soon, reddish-brown coloured stains can be seen splattering the snowy trail.

The camera zooms in on piles of fur, with antlers and hooves scattering the path. It's difficult to count exactly how many dead caribou are on the ground just by looking at the footage.

'Being treated as criminals': First Nation hunter

Indigenous hunting and fishing rights were guaranteed in the treaties signed between the government of Canada and First Nations leaders, and then enshrined in the Constitution in 1982.

Treaty-based hunters are exempt from many of the restrictions that non-Indigenous hunters must obey, including specific hunting hours or seasons and bag limits, according to Manitoba's hunting guide.

Myron Cook, a caribou hunter from Barren Lands First Nation in northern Manitoba, wasn't involved in the Nueltin Lake hunt, but knows the area well. He says Indigenous hunters from northern Manitoba, Nunavut and Saskatchewan are known to frequent the region.

But he said it's unusual for hunters there to leave caribou meat behind, unless it was damaged, or the animal was old, injured or sick.

While Cook said he and other community members try to selectively hunt older male caribou, pregnant cows are harvested from time to time. He was saddened to see the fetuses left to waste, and said some communities treasure the meat.

"That meat is prized and given to elders," he said.

"Yes, they do eat everything from the caribou. They would eat that fetus. It is a delicacy to some elders."

There are certain body parts caribou hunters typically do not retrieve at this time of year, including the hide, stomach, ribcage and head, said Cook.

"There's many things there that could have looked like carcasses, but [were maybe] just the scrap piles."

Cook hopes the situation comes to a proper conclusion, but says he would liked to have seen First Nations hunters in the area consulted before the Manitoba Wildlife Federation posted images of the dead caribou on social media Tuesday.

"I feel that it's a biased, one-sided story, without [any] consultation given to the Dene people. It is their ancestral hunting grounds," he said. "It feels like we are being treated as criminals to practise our sovereign right to provide for our families."

He wants people to know that he and many other treaty-based hunters have the utmost respect for caribou, particularly during harvests.

"The Dene, the Inuit and the Cree have been harvesting these caribou for generations. It's their sovereign Indigenous right to harvest caribou."

Meanwhile, it appears Scigliano is involved in a court case with a nearby First Nation over land in the area.

Nueltin Lake Lodges recently sued Northlands Dene First Nation, the provincial and federal governments, as well as the Treaty Land Entitlement Committee of Manitoba, alleging it was being excluded from treaty land negotiations in the area, according to the statement of claim filed at the Manitoba Court of King's Bench in October 2023.

'Can't allow this to happen': Wildlife Federation

The Manitoba Wildlife Federation, a conservation organization that represents the interests of hunters, says dozens of caribou carcasses were found buried under deep, fresh snow on April 18.

Chris Heald, the federation's senior policy adviser, says staff who went to the lodge at Scigliano's request saw between 50 to 75 caribou carcasses at the site that day.

"The meat was way buried down, underneath the organs and the gut piles and the furs," he said Tuesday. "You'd have to have the snow melt to count how many were there."

The multiple piles of dead caribou included one pile of 10 carcasses that were "really well processed," with all of the usable meat taken, and they appeared to have been from a hunt earlier in the winter, the federation said in a Tuesday newsletter.

It also said federation staff saw five caribou fetuses left at the lodge, alongside multiple caribou with half of the usable meat still in tact.

"As a hunter, I'm disgusted they wasted that amount of meat," Heald said.

"We need government to lead the discussions — and community leaders need to bring forth the same message — that we can't allow this to happen or there'll be nothing left in the future."

Animal cruelty charges difficult to predict: RCMP

When asked about the dead caribou during question period at the legislature on Tuesday, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said provincial officials are taking the matter seriously.

"I've spoken to people directly who live in this part of the province and who live off the land, and let me say this unequivocally — anybody who participated in this has no respect for animals, has no right to be able to hunt in this province," he said in Tuesday's question period.

Kinew said the hunters involved will be "pursued and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law."

The RCMP's Manaigre said police were initially told that upwards of 50 caribou carcasses may have been left at the lodge site.

"When our officers went and spoke with the group up there, I think by what they were told, the count was nine," he said. "You can kind of see how rumours can spread fast."

The hunters RCMP encountered at the lodge site on April 18 were very co-operative, Manaigre said, adding the hunters may have been surprised to learn that the site was not abandoned.

"We could be looking at a property vacant for five, six years. It's easy how it could be construed by the locals as being abandoned," he said.

"From what it sounds like, there's probably been quite a few groups using this place as a staging area for the hunting in that area, so I guess when these guys were there, the damage had been done over quite a long period of time."

The Wildlife Federation's Heald says the lodge was well-maintained, and would not have appeared abandoned.

Manaigre said it's difficult to predict whether any of the people involved in the caribou hunt could face animal cruelty charges.

"If they're hunting as they normally hunt, to me, I don't see it. But if it was just a slaughter of animals for no reason, then I could maybe see that," he said. "But from what it sounds like, based on the descriptions on scene, the animals were cut up and meant for consumption."

The logistical planning for that kind of hunt is complex given the number of people and equipment required to process multiple caribou, he said.

"Caribou's quite a large animal. You're not going to just shoot it and bring it as is. You're going to want to clean it to minimize the weight."

Manaigre said it's believed the parts left behind at the lodge were mainly the shoulder portions of the caribou.

He cautions anyone who see images of the caribou at the lodge site to hold their judgment until the police investigation is completed.

"People are going to see short snippets, or photos, that may not tell the whole story," he said.

"I'd like to err on the side of caution and think that a lot of the people doing the hunting have the expertise, and know what part of the animal's needed [versus] what's not."