Two Fort St. John men have been ordered to pay a combined $8,000 in fines and penalties after filming themselves jumping onto the back of a moose on a lake near Fort Nelson in July 2014.
Bradley Dale Crook, 32, and Jaysun Allan Pinkerton, 33, pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to a count of harassing wildlife with a boat at Tuchodi Lakes - an event dubbed the "moose rider investigation" after video of the incident went viral and racked up more than two millions views on YouTube.
The Crown dropped charges of attempting to capture wildlife and hunting big game while swimming against both men under a joint recommendation to Judge Brian Daley in Fort St. John provincial court.
Daley fined both men $2,000 and ordered each to pay an additional $2,000 to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, along with associated victim surcharges. Payments to the foundation are tax deductible.
"You lads did something really foolish," Daley said in handing down the fines.
"We know in this day and age the stress that humans within an area can cause on wildlife. You guys are from the Peace, you know how you treat animals and you didn't act the way you ought to."
In June 2015, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service was forwarded a video of a man jumping from the prow of a boat onto the back of a swimming moose calf and riding it for several seconds. Wolftracker TV, a conservation group, posted the video on YouTube, generating national media attention. The video has more than 2.3 million views.
Officers later identified the lake as Tuchodi Lakes southwest of Fort Nelson. Investigators believed the video had been taken the previous summer, based on snowpack on the mountains surrounding the lake. The men were charged in June 2016 after a year-long investigation.
Under B.C.'s Wildlife Act, Crook and Pinkerton were liable to fines of up to $100,000 and/or a year in prison. Both declined to comment on the incident to Judge Daley, or outside the courtroom following the decision.
Their lawyer, John Hope, told Daley the incident happened on a "nice, hot summer afternoon."
"People were long on beer and short on occasion. They decided to go rodeoing with this poor moose," he said.
"It was transitory in nature, 10 minutes or so, and then the moose got to go its merry way, and there was no harm or injury done that anybody knows about."
Crown prosecutor Paul Swartz urged Daley to levy higher fines despite the joint recommendation, citing previous case law and a veterinarian opinion that the moose could have died from stress and muscle complications as a result of the harassment.
The two men made repeated attempts to circle and mount the moose, and did nothing to assist conservation officers in their investigation, Swartz argued. He singled out Pinkerton for being uncooperative and "deceptive" in the early stages of the investigation and after his computer was seized.
"The fines, I submit, are certainly agreed to, but they are in the circumstances, perhaps, at the lower end," Swartz said.
"It's not clear that these individuals understand the kind of an opinion that was offered by a veterinarian in this case that was sought out."
Daley ultimately stuck with the fines recommended in the joint submission.
Crook and Pinkerton have six months to pay the court and the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.
A boat seized as part of the investigation will be returned to its owner. It did not belong to either Crook or Pinkerton.
