Hunter fined for shooting deer decoy from inside truck in Warkworth area: MNRF

An Oshawa man has pleaded guilty to unsafe hunting including discharging a firearm from a vehicle south of Peterborough.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says in the fall of 2018, conservation officers responded to complaints about unsafe deer hunting practices in the Warkworth area in the Municipality of Trent Hills, about 55 kilometres south of Peterborough.

In response, the ministry says it conducted a deer decoy operation.

Court heard that on Dec. 5, 2018, officers placed a decoy in an open area off a roadway. That afternoon, a hunter in an eastbound truck on Concession Road pointed a shotgun out of of the driver’s side window and fired three shots at the decoy.

Officers arrested the man while he was stopped in front of the decoy and he was charged under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act with:

• Careless use of a firearm to hunt
• Unlawfully discharging a firearm from a vehicle
• Hunter deer without a licence
• Hunting while trespassing
• Using an illegal firearm during a deer hunt

The ministry on Tuesday said Kenneth Russell Carter pleaded guilty to the charges in court in Cobourg this summer.

He was subsequently fined $5,000, had his hunting licence suspended for a year and forfeited his shotgun. He will also be required to retake the Ontario Hunter Education Program and pass the exam before he can purchase an Ontario hunting licence again.

“The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry wants to remind hunters that unsafe practices like shooting on or across a road and having loaded firearms in vehicles pose a serious threat to the public and other hunters,” the Ministry stated.

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