Remember the two men seen attempting to ride a moose across a B.C. lake in a 2015 viral video? They have now been convicted and fined under the B.C. Wildlife Act.
A video published in 2015 shows the moment Jaysun Pinkerton and Bradley Crook drove their boat toward a moose swimming in Tuchodi Lakes. When the boat gets close enough, one of the men jump on the moose’s back.
In the video, his friends are heard laughing, the moose groans and sinks underwater, before dipping back up. The man then rides the moose for 15 seconds before he’s thrown off. The moose, now in deeper water, emits another groan and wades away.
“I’ve never seen something this awesome!” says one of the friends watching the proceedings.
Shortly after the video became public, B.C. conservation officers investigated and identified the two men. In June 2016, they were charged with three counts under the Wildlife Act, including harassment of wildlife with the use of a boat; an attempt to capture wildlife, and hunting big game that is swimming.
The men were convicted on Friday and fined $2,000 each and also ordered to pay an additional $2,000 to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.
At the time the video surfaced, Global News spoke to David Vince, a sergeant in the B.C. Conservation Service in the North Peace zone who said the video shows the participants “clearly harassing wildlife, chasing it with a jet boat and then jumping on its back” and that “you could just see the fear in the animal’s eyes.”
Vince said he has never seen anything like this before. “I’ve never seen anybody go out of their way to scare wildlife,” he said.
–With files from Paula Baker
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