Method of Take: Drowning

[AKBC]

AK Wildlife Troopers​

• AK22096828​

  Location: Bethel
  Type: Take Moose Closed Season
  
  Dispatch Text:
  On 09/15/2022 AWT contacted two individuals with a recently harvested bull moose in Brown's Slough in Bethel. Further investigation revealed the individuals, identified as Steven Andrew and Tyler Walker, located the moose swimming in the Kuskokwim River. They used their boat to keep the moose from reaching shore, eventually tiring it out. At that point, they attached a rope to the moose. The moose was killed by drowning. The moose was taken in GMU 18 Zone 1, which was closed on 09/09/2022. Andrew and Walker were charged with Take Moose Closed Season, Unlawful Methods/Means, and Unlawful Possession/Transportation. Their boat was seized as evidence and the moose was donated to ONC in Bethel. Arraignment was set in the Bethel Court on 12/07/2022.
  Posted on 9/17/2022 9:20:30 AM by DPS\dcbrooks

 

[wildbill34]

Wow, unfortunate people like this exist in our community.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Thats methed up...figures it happend in Bethel.

 

[Gunnersdad49]

What a terrible way to kill a moose. I'm glad they were caught. I hope they lose big in court.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Thats just pathetic.

 

[ozyclint]

Had a similar situation happen with a water buffalo, except I didn't kill the poor thing. Was on a river, fishing in my boat. Rounded a corner and saw a buffalo swimming across the river and I got up close, took some pics and then let him be. He got to the other bank and I took some more pics then he went his way and I went fishing. Great experience.

To harass an animal to the point of death in that situation is disgusting.

 

[kwackkillncrew]

probably just get a slap on the wrist.... Seems to be what mostly happens with things like that go down in rural ak.

 

[MallardSX2]

IMHO its not much worse than what the "natives" are doing up there....they drive up with their boat and motor to Caribou and plug them in the head while they are swimming. Meanwhile its booooo hoooo hoooo our caribou are dying off!

 

[william schmaltz]

Unfortunately charges will be dropped or transferred to another agency and dropped. It will be argued that this is how moose were traditionally taken. State prosecutors won't touch this. Or if by some miracle they stick, we're looking at a maximum of 10 hours community service.

 

[AKBC]

Unfortunately charges will be dropped or transferred to another agency and dropped. It will be argued that this is how moose were traditionally taken. State prosecutors won't touch this. Or if by some miracle they stick, we're looking at a maximum of 10 hours community service.

You are probably right. Just like what happened with the Point Hope caribou slaughter a few years ago or the gray whale kill on the Kuskokwim River.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Back in early 80's Dad was on charter fishing trip on Reindeer Lake, Saskatchewan. All of the guides at that time were from the Cree Nation. At one point during the trip, a call came out across the radio and "George" said to reel in the lines, so Dad and his buddy did so. George fired up the motor and ran about 15 minutes across some open water to where several boats were gathered. A bull moose had been spotted crossing the lake and one of the guides had lassoed its horns with an anchor rope. A couple other boats did the same and they all throttled up in the same direction to drown it. They didn't need George's help, so he took Dad and his friend back to where they were to continue fishing. George explained this was legal for natives and that none of the moose would go to waste.

 

[robertchutch]

IMHO its not much worse than what the "natives" are doing up there....they drive up with their boat and motor to Caribou and plug them in the head while they are swimming. Meanwhile its booooo hoooo hoooo our caribou are dying off!

bit different of a situation putting them out quickly compared to exhausting an animal until it drowns

 

[HuntHarder]

Punishment should fit the crime. Send these guys to buds training, then take their hunting rights.

 

[PA Hunter]

I love hunting and that is just pure disgusting. I hope they get a huge fine and lose any hunting privilege for a long time. Just pathetic and appalling.

 

[JBrown1]

IMHO its not much worse than what the "natives" are doing up there....they drive up with their boat and motor to Caribou and plug them in the head while they are swimming. Meanwhile its booooo hoooo hoooo our caribou are dying off!

You are confused on several points: no one, not biologists or anyone else, is saying that the harvest is negatively impacting caribou numbers up here. Caribou populations tend to be very cyclical.

Also, in the units where you can kill migrating caribou in the water while in a boat, there are relatively few hunters compared to the size of the herd. That is why we are allowed to take unlimited caribou over the course of the year(5 per day for most of the year).

Lastly, "native" has noting to do with it. All rural residents, whether native or not, are allowed to participate in subsistence activities. That would include shooting caribou in the head while they are swimming.

 

[Short Track]

5 caribou per day ?? For what ?? I haven't even gotten though 1 yet, and it's in my freezer a year.
Are you donating it? wasting it ? leaving it there for bear food ??

 

[JBrown1]

5 caribou per day ?? For what ?? I haven't even gotten though 1 yet, and it's in my freezer a year.
Are you donating it? wasting it ? leaving it there for bear food ??

It’s all used for human food. In the villages a hunter may have 20 mouths to feed when you figure family and elders. And they eat caribou every day when it’s available.

That’s going to require 5 pounds of meat a day, which is 1,825 pounds of meat a year. That’s going to require a lot of caribou. Maybe 15? That’s all just a guesstimate to illustrate the point.

 

[LongWayAround]

Back in early 80's Dad was on charter fishing trip on Reindeer Lake, Saskatchewan. All of the guides at that time were from the Cree Nation. At one point during the trip, a call came out across the radio and "George" said to reel in the lines, so Dad and his buddy did so. George fired up the motor and ran about 15 minutes across some open water to where several boats were gathered. A bull moose had been spotted crossing the lake and one of the guides had lassoed its horns with an anchor rope. A couple other boats did the same and they all throttled up in the same direction to drown it. They didn't need George's help, so he took Dad and his friend back to where they were to continue fishing. George explained this was legal for natives and that none of the moose would go to waste.

I was on Reindeer Lake in the early 2000s and saw at least one moose way out in the lake. Fortunately, our guide didn't drown them.

 

[LongWayAround]

On the original subject of this thread, they should make these two shitheads swim the river while being corralled by a boat.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

imagine the stress hormones that meat had cycling by the time it drowned. I would not want to eat that at all.

I wouldn't openly judge "the Native way" if they weren't so aggressively and ignorantly opposed to non-locals in their claim that "the non-local ways" of fair chase interfere with their "federally-guaranteed subsistence lifestyle."