Hopefully they catch whom ever wasted the meat of this caribou. Must have been very little meat taken to have it classified as poaching by Fish and Wildlife when a caribou could have been harvested by a First Nations individual (not saying it was).
Did some quick searching and the Alberta Woodland Caribou Recovery Plan2004-05 to 2013/14 makes mention that in addition to all of the other issues that are contributing to caribou population reductions in the province, continued harvest of caribou by First Nations is also a threat to the caribou population. Not the cause, but also a contributing factor to the decline of the population. The numbers are that low in some areas.
Also found this interesting court document from September 8, 2010:
http://www.woodwardandcompany.com/me...n_-_colour.pdf
The 'Coles Notes' version and relevance to where this thread has headed is that legal action is filed by members of and on the behalf of several First Nations groups in Alberta against the Minister of Environment and the Attorney General of Canada for failure to discharge his statutory duties to protect and provide for the recovery of the boreal population of woodland caribou under the Species at Risk Act.
One of the items under the grounds for the application is that under Treaty 6 or Treaty 8 , the Applicant First Nations have the constitutionally protected right to hunt woodland caribou for sustenance.
There is a lot more to this document, but I think it makes it pretty clear that First Nations in the area have the right to harvest caribou. I think that is the answer that Sheephunter is sorry that he asked.
At the end of the day, still a shame that any wildlife was shot and had a significant amount of the meat wasted regardless of who was pulling the trigger. Even more of a shame when it is one of the species at risk and I think we can all agree to that.
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