The last of three men charged with illegally harvesting a woodland caribou in Northern Saskatchewan has been fined and banned from hunting.
Zane Layman recently pleaded guilty in La Ronge provincial court to unlawful hunting and using a vehicle to chase wildlife. He was fined $14,000 and received a four-year hunting ban.
Two others from La Ronge, Carter Cossette and Robin Lewis Jr. resolved their cases last summer. Both received monetary fines and a one-year hunting ban.
On April 28, 2022, conservation officers were tipped that a caribou was illegally killed at Russell Lake, approximately 450 kilometers north of La Ronge.
The investigation pointed to contracted employees of a drilling company working near the Key Lake mine site the day prior. The drilling company is owned by Layman.
Cellphone video and photos show Cossette and Lewis showing the pair chasing two woodland caribou with three snowmobiles. The third snowmobiler would later be identified as Layman. One video shows an animal falling through the ice, recovering, but being chased into exhaustion. Layman would kill the caribou with a knife.
A search warrant was executed on Layman’s home, where knives, clothing, equipment and electronic devices were seized. The boreal woodland caribou is listed federally as a threatened species.