While party hunting is a perfectly fine and legal thing to do during Ontario’s moose season, you just better ensure you actually belong to a party of hunters before making such a claim.
After putting a calf moose on the ground without a valid tag, Mathew Dixon of Wainfleet phoned a friend. According to reports, Dixon called his long-time buddy Henry Bergeron of Sudbury after downing the moose and asked him to affix his tag to the expired animal.
Claiming that the pair were party hunting when being investigated by conservation officers, it was later determined that Bergeron was not hunting at the time the call was placed.
Both men were charged for the incident in November 2022 and finally had their day in court earlier this summer. Bergeron pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing an illegally killed moose and making a false statement to a conservation officer, while his partner pleaded guilty to hunting moose without a license and possessing an illegally killed moose.
Each of the men were sentenced with a one-year suspension of their hunting privileges in Ontario as well as $3,000 fines.