Saskatchewan wildlife and livestock organizations are looking for answers after a spate of livestock killings around the province.
The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation (SWF) and Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association (SSGA) are offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction related to the deaths of four livestock animals.
One of the animals was named Croppy.
Croppy, a horse, got her nickname after losing part of her ear to frostbite.
Ash Cooper, part owner of the Cooper Clan Buckin’ Horse Company, found the mare dead in September near his family’s ranch northeast of Senlac, a community roughly an hour west of North Battleford. Surveying the area where Croppy was killed, Cooper says he found tracks leading away from the site.
“They’ve got no morals clearly” said Cooper, doubtful that this was an accident.
“There was no hunting season on. This wasn’t mistaken identity,” said Cooper. “It was intentional or poaching.”
Croppy was an important part of the Cooper Clan Buckin’ Horse Company. Cooper said she was the best brood mare out of their entire horse herd.
“That one hurt a little,” he said.
Cooper hopes the reward will be enough to bring someone forward. As for the cost of losing Croppy, that’s hard to calculate.
“You can’t really put a price on this. Every colt she had is outstanding, so, times that by how many more colts she had times how many colts they’d have,” he said. “I mean, that’s a lot of money.”
Chad MacPherson, general manager of the SSGA , says these sorts of incidents are happening around the province but emphasized that this is not widespread.
But, the fact that animals are being killed is new.
“This was happening last year as well — a lot of the animals were shot with lower calibre firearms and were just injured. This year the ones I’ve seen have been fatal,” said MacPherson.
So far there have been three cows killed in addition to Croppy. The shootings are not unique to one region or area in the province which leads the RCMP, SSGA and SWF to believe these are separate incidents.
And while it’s not widespread, the cost associated with losing livestock is significant.
“Start at a thousand dollars a head and go up from there,” said MacPherson.
Last year was the first time a reward was offered for information that would lead to a conviction, but no charges or convictions were laid. Last year’s incidents were localized to the southeast area of Saskatchewan.
Darrell Crabbe, executive director SWF, said the Saskatchewan hunting community’s reputation is tarnished by these shootings.
“This isn’t an accidental shooting. This is intentional,” said Crabbe. “People are just shooting these animals randomly.”
But the animals aren’t being harvested or hauled off, which makes establishing a motive tricky.
RCMP officer Cpl. Mel Zurevinsky says while the cases are limited they are all quite different. For example, near Saskatoon a cow had its “front-end taken,” after it was killed. Zurevinsky said this could be someone’s attempt to hide evidence, take a unique set of horns or carry out a grudge against a rancher.
“If you’re in dire straights and you shoot an animal to harvest it, that’s a different story,” said Zurevinsky.
“It’s hard to determine what the motive is when they’re just shooting them.”
Zurevinsky is aware of livestock being killed around Choiceland and Saskatoon, as well as Senlac.
“It can’t be the same person travelling all of the province doing this. There’s some people that are somewhat demented around the province shooting cattle for no reason,” Zurevinsky.
Crabbe asks that when hunters are out this season that they keep their eyes peeled for anything that looks suspicious.
“If you see something that doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t,” said Crabbe
“We expect other hunters to play a role here.”