A ruling from B.C.’s Environmental Appeal Board (EAB) has brought the definition of “hunting” into focus, affirming a decision to penalize a wildlife biologist for his actions toward an endangered caribou herd under study in northern B.C.
Doug Heard, a former provincial government wildlife biologist and adjunct professor at the University of Northern B.C., has dedicated the past decade to the restoration of an endangered caribou herd at Kennedy Siding. This area, spanning 223 hectares, is crucial habitat for threatened woodland caribou situated southeast of Mackenzie, B.C. However, his approach to gather caribou hair for DNA analysis was deemed unlawful.
On November 7, 2024, Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship personnel observed Heard on a live webcam using a “cable caster” device to shoot small clamps, known as alligator clips, with the intention of collecting caribou hair for research at a feeding station. Although Heard possessed a permit to retrieve DNA samples from hair and fecal pellets, extracting hair directly from the animals was not permitted.
After his permit was revoked, Heard appealed the decision. In a ruling issued on May 7, the EAB concluded that his actions fell within the scope of illegal hunting as defined by B.C. law.
The Wildlife Act’s definition of hunting includes the pursuit of animals with the intent to capture any part, even just hair, “regardless of whether the wildlife is injured, killed, or captured thereafter,” according to the tribunal.
The province contended that allowing Heard’s actions to proceed would set a precedent for individuals to target and track wildlife as long as their goal was to capture a specific part of an animal rather than the entire creature. The Environmental Appeal Board concurred.
While Heard argued that the cable caster was less intrusive than his previous methods of collecting hair samples, such as using a dart gun and a toy crossbow, these approaches had been deemed invalid in earlier board rulings from 2021 and 2022. Heard was eligible to reapply for a wildlife permit as of May 2 but declined to offer comments on the decision when contacted by CBC News.