Poaching toll rises with grisly find in Gaspésie provincial park
Elusive poachers could face fines of $40,000 as toll rises to 5 carcasses of game killed in daylight attacks
Wildlife officers are trying to track down poachers who they say have been running rampant in the Parc de la Gaspésie, Quebec's provincial park in the Chic-Choc Mountains.
The investigation began after a pair of moose — a mother and her calf — was found dismembered by the side of a road Sunday.
Wildlife enthusiast Robert Lepage had shot video of the same adult moose that he later found severed – the head and torso left in the middle of the road, with the rest of the body missing.
The moose's calf had been decapitated, and the head was nowhere in sight.
"I was really angry. We don't hunt. We're too old, so we like to walk around the park to see live animals – moose and deer. When you see animals cut up like that and left to rot, it's really upsetting," said Lepage, who lives in nearby Ste-Anne-des-Monts.
At least two other animals were also illegally killed in the park at the end of October.
Killings limited to one small area
The discovery represents the fourth and fifth carcasses found in a four-kilometre radius since October, according to the park's conservation officer Claude Isabel.
He said it is the first time in 15 years that he has seen such a thing.
The brazen acts were committed in broad daylight.
"We think this is provocation. The acts are being committed in the heart of the park, near Mont-Albert, where there is a lot of activity. These people are pretty daring," Isabel said.
Fines for hunting or fishing in protected areas can run as high as $40,000.
Quebec's Wildlife Protection Agency has sent in officers from Matane and Grande-Vallée to assist in the investigation.
They are asking anyone who has information to contact them at their office in Ste-Anne-des-Monts, or at SOS Braconnage, at 1-800-463-2191.