{"id":32275,"date":"2014-11-20T15:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T07:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=32275"},"modified":"2014-11-20T13:30:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-20T05:30:30","slug":"yukon-man-tells-court-he-can-legally-shoot-wolves-because-of-aboriginal-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/11\/20\/yukon-man-tells-court-he-can-legally-shoot-wolves-because-of-aboriginal-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Yukon man tells court he can legally shoot wolves because of aboriginal rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alaska<\/a>
Alaska Highway Scenery en route from Watson Lake to Whitehorse – Yukon Territory – Canada. Adam Jones, Ph.D. \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WHITEHORSE\u2014A First Nations\u2019 man who claims to have an aboriginal right to shoot wolves has pleaded not guilty to three charges under the Yukon Wildlife Act.<\/p>\n

Clayton Thomas told a Yukon territorial court that he acted in accordance with his aboriginal rights when he shot two wolves in a Whitehorse subdivision last year.<\/p>\n

Thomas, a 33-year-old member of British Columbia\u2019s Tahltan First Nation, is charged with 10 infractions of the act.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Lee Kirkpatrick said the Crown will proceed on three charges: illegal hunting, the careless use of a firearm and trafficking in wildlife.<\/p>\n

Thomas doesn\u2019t dispute that he shot the two wolves last year.<\/p>\n

He argued he was justified in doing so, that the wolves were a safety concern in the neighbourhood, and as an aboriginal, his actions were legal.<\/p>\n

Representing himself, Thomas said he plans to call six witnesses\u2014including Tahltan elders from Watson Lake and Dease Lake, B.C.\u2014to testify when his hearing resumes in December.<\/p>\n

When the trial started Monday, Kirkpatrick read a statement of agreed facts by Thomas and the Crown.<\/p>\n

On April 17, 2013, Yukon conservation officers received a complaint from a resident in the Mount Sima subdivision that wolves killed his dog at the end of his driveway.<\/p>\n

A statement said a week later that an unnamed source told the conservation officers that Thomas, also a neighbourhood resident, had killed a black wolf the night the dog was killed, and texted a photo of the wolf to friends.<\/p>\n

Conservation officers received a second tip that Thomas had sent around a photo of him holding up a grey wolf carcass. The source reported hearing gun shots at about 11 p.m. April 17, and more gunshots at about midnight on April 22.<\/p>\n

Conservation officers served a search warrant at Thomas\u2019 home on May 3.<\/p>\n

Officers seized 47 items, including five wolf hides, sheep horns, firearms, ammunition and computers. The five wolves, Thomas said, were harvested in B.C. under his subsistence rights.<\/p>\n

The statement said Thomas admitted to shooting two wolves in the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Thomas did not have residents\u2019 permission to be hunting within one kilometre of houses, Kirkpatrick said, as wildlife laws dictate.<\/p>\n

Three days have been set aside for Thomas\u2019 witnesses to testify about Tahltan culture and hunting and trapping practices, starting Dec. 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHITEHORSE\u2014A First Nations\u2019 man who claims to have an aboriginal right to shoot wolves has pleaded not guilty to three …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":32276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","mauthors-rhiannon-russell","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}