Meat seller gets jail time for trafficking in moose

A meat retailer in Newfoundland will go to jail and pay a hefty fine for trafficking in big game, a provincial court judge in St. John's ruled Tuesday.

Gerard Kavanagh, 47, was charged after an elaborate moose-poaching investigation involving police and undercover conservation officers in the St. John's area in 2007.

As part of the investigation, search warrants were executed in St. John's, Mount Pearl, Petty Harbour and Ferryland in July 2007, involving about 10 individuals and several businesses.

Kavanagh, owner of Kavanagh's Meats in Ferryland, purchased hundreds of pounds of moose meat from licensed hunters. Under his licence to sell the game meat, he was only allowed to sell it cooked.

However, Kavanagh sold raw meat, including uncooked moose and caribou, to undercover conservation officers.

In court Tuesday, Kavanagh's lawyer said he wanted to make it clear that Kavanagh was not a poacher.

"He confesses that he's illiterate, but that doesn't relieve him of the obligation to have those conditions read to him," lawyer Ian Patey said. "I've seen nothing to suggest to me that Mr. Kavanagh has been [anything] but forthright and honest. As said to me and in the agreed statement of facts, he simply didn't understand that he couldn't sell raw meat."

Kavanagh was sentenced to three months in jail and will have to pay $10,000 in fines.

Another retailer was also caught up in the 2007 big game investigation. Bidgood's, a popular store in the St. John's area, was charged in December with trafficking in big game as well as unlawfully possessing big game.