The Ontario Department of Natural Resources and Forestry announced Friday that it has fined two Wheatley Hunters for illegally discharging a firearm from a highway. They were also fined for trespassing.
The incident occurred on September 25, 2021 at the opening of the small game hunting season. Conservation officers were conducting a pheasant lure operation in the Hullet Marsh area, northeast of Clinton. This was due to historical occurrences of unsafe hunting in the same area.
Officers observed the two hunters drive past the location of the decoy, stop the vehicle and get out and attempt to shoot the decoy from the road. It was located on private property where they did not have permission to hunt.
The case was heard in a Goderich court on March 22, 2022.
Both individuals pleaded guilty and were fined $1,000 each for illegal discharge of a firearm, $500 each for breaking and entering for the purpose of hunting, and both had their hunting licenses suspended for six months.