Poacher targeted trophy stags

Two stags bred to be trophies for tourists have had their heads cut off and stolen by a worker at a neighbouring farm.

The bodies of the stags, including the hunting park’s prized white breeding stag, were dumped at a nearby creek after the midnight raid north of Kaikoura.

Christchurch builder Alex Jordan Ranstead broke into the Clarence Valley Trophy Hunting Park on July 19.

He used the headlights on his van to find the stags, shot them twice and used a hunting knife to cut off their heads, a police summary said.

Ranstead put the heads and the carcasses in the back of his van and drove a kilometre away, where he threw the carcasses over a bank. He then drove to Spring Creek, north of Blenheim, and stashed the heads, gun and knife at a friend’s house.

Farm park owner Steve Millard said Ranstead had shot his white fallow stag of seven years, worth $7000 to the right shooter, and a brown stag worth up to $4000.

Tourists, usually American, stayed at the lodge for hunting trips, and would often stuff and mount the head and shoulders as a trophy.

A neighbouring farmer found the carcasses in a creek on his property the next morning.

Ranstead admitted charges of unlawful hunting and unlawfully possessing a firearm at the Blenheim District Court on Monday.

His lawyer John Holdaway said Ranstead could pay $3000 immediately, and would repay the rest at $100 a week.

Ranstead was convicted of both charges and sentenced to pay $4500 reparation in total, and 40 hours’ community work. The rifle, knife and ammunition were to be destroyed.