Hunter tries to head off trouble using dead elk

You could say it was a rare medium, not well done.

The message was: “Partiers, vandals and thieves be gone.” The medium was three elk heads. Tired of break-and-enters, dumped furniture and partying drug users along a deadend gravel road in Abbotsford’s Auguston neighbourhood, one hunter figured he could scare off the rowdy miscreants with the trio of severed heads.

They were all missing their eyes thanks to crows and at least one of them had a bullet hole in it.

“The heads were placed side-by-side at the end of Farina Road, to scare away these people who park there and do illegal things,” said conservation officer Don Stahl, who tracked down the man who put them there.

It turned out the three cows had been shot legally near Hudson’s Hope in the Peace River region by three hunters who’d won in the lottery for limited early hunting. Hunters keep the heads, Stahl added, so they can prove that whatever meat they’re transporting came from a female elk.

“It wasn’t really a good idea on his part to place the heads there like that,” Stahl said.

“I gave him a written warning, he apologized profusely and he removed the heads.”

Stahl said there’s a small herd of Roosevelt elk on Sumas Mountain, comprising four or five cows and a bull, so his first worry was that someone had culled half the herd.

It was by far the weirdest call he’s responded to, he said.

Normally, conservation officers respond to calls about out-of-season hunting or sturgeon being caught for their caviar.

“Typically, it’s someone getting illegal food or doing it for profit,” he said.

Anyone who witnesses any illegal hunting or fishing can call the conservation officer reporting line at 1-877-952-7277.