Man fined for hunting on private land

A southern Alberta man paid a hefty price for hunting on private land last year.

It looked like it was going to be a good day when Iain Llewellyn Hosgood and his father-in-law went hunting near the Town of Raymond Nov. 4 and bagged a whitetail deer.

Unfortunately for Hosgood, however, he wasn’t able to brag about it when he returned home.

The hunter was on private land when he shot the deer, and he didn’t ask the landowner for permission to hunt on his property. The landowner called the Report a Poacher line and Hosgood was charged with unlawfully possessing wildlife and entering private land.

Hosgood pleaded guilty this week in Lethbridge provincial court to the single count of unlawful possession of wildlife and was fined $1,000. Authorities seized the deer, which, court was told, would provide a needy family with food.

Hosgood apologized in court and told the judge he didn’t realize on whose land he was hunting.

“I thought we were on Hutterite land,” Hosgood said, adding he had permission to hunt on that land.