Woman fined $5,000 for buying bear parts

A Burnaby woman who illegally bought bear gall bladders to treat her ailing child has been fined $5,000.

Yon Kim pleaded guilty in February to two counts of trafficking in bear gall bladders. She was sentenced Tuesday in provincial court in Port Coquitlam. Two other charges of importing or exporting bear paws and unlawful possession of dead wildlife were stayed.

The investigation that led to the charges against Kim began after she phoned the Yellowstone Country Bear Hunters Association in Wyoming in early October 2014. She said she was looking for bear gall bladders.

A representative of the association reported the call to the state’s fish and wildlife authority. Someone from that authority spoke to Kim, who said she knew buying bear gall bladders was illegal, but she needed them to treat her son’s neurological condition.

The B.C. Conservation Officer Service was alerted and started an undercover operation.

An undercover officer arranged to meet Kim in Merritt. Kim asked about buying bear paws and the officer told her buying or selling bear parts was illegal. She said she knew and didn’t want to see bears killed, but she thought people were more important.

On Oct. 27, 2014, the officer posed as a hunter and met with Kim and an acupuncturist named Yunhee Kim (the women are not related). The officer and a colleague sold the women three gall bladders and four paws for $750.

Kim bought gall bladders one more time, Nov. 9, 2014, in Coquitlam.

In March, Yunhee Kim was fined $22,400 after pleading guilty to seven charges related to trafficking in bear gall bladders and paws, and deer meat.