During the fall of 2016 a disturbing video surfaced depicting a group of teens who had spotted a whitetail buck in the Cannonball River. The young men then proceeded to drag the deer out of the water and violently stab it a number of times until it died.
The shocking video was just recently released by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in a plea to the public for help in identifying any of the participants from the footage. Based on the footage, officials believe the incident took place on the north side of the Cannonball River in October of 2016 just west of the N.D. Highway 1806 bridge.
Six or seven young men are shown on the video in total, it goes on to show a few of them venture out into the river to retrieve the animal, with the others looking on. Once landed on shore, the animal was stabbed a number of times in the neck as the attackers shoved the animals nose into the muddy shore to suffocate it.
“The manner that the animal was killed certainly is disturbing,” North Dakota Fish and Game Department investigations supervisor Scott Winkelman told The Bismarck Tribune.
In addition to animal cruelty charges, the individuals will also be subject to a plethora of other violations including hunting without a license, illegal method of take and failure to tag big game.
Anyone with information on the possible identity of any individual in this video, or any other information, is urged to call the Report All Poachers hotline at 800-472-2121; contact the Game and Fish enforcement division directly at 701-328-6604; or email swinkelman@nd.gov. RAP calls are anonymous, and can lead to rewards for information that leads to convictions.
The video is available for viewing and download on the Game and Fish Department’s YouTube channel.