Two men from southwestern Ontario are finding out the hard way that when you go hunting, you need to follow the rules to the letter of the law.
Officials with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) say the two men have been fined a total of $3,000 between them for deer hunting offences connected to an investigation that started on December 21, 2017.
A release from the MNRF says officers were conducting compliance checks in Lakeshore one hour after sunset on that day when they spoke with an Essex County man, Jeffery Reid, who was spotted driving out of a field. Court documents show that he had an antlerless deer that did not have a seal attached to it and that he also had a deer licence and a seal in his possession that belonged to someone else -- Matthew Reid from Chatham-Kent.
At that point, Matthew was contacted in a separate vehicle and officers determined that he had shot the deer and called Jeffery to help him load it into a vehicle.
Investigators say Matthew failed to properly encase his crossbow after sunset and had given his deer seal to Jeffery to attach to the deer.
Matthew later pleaded guilty to enabling another person to use his game seal, failing to immediately attach his seal to a white-tailed deer, and unlawfully possessing an unencased firearm at night. Jeffery pleaded guilty to possessing a game seal issued to another person and transporting a white-tailed deer without a seal attached to it.