One story I'm trying to follow is the Jeff King illegal moose, taken
inside the Denali Park, while his camp was just outside. Game warden
found his vehicle with the moose parts in it.
Jeff King, the Iditarod champ and long-time Alaskan, surely was aware
of what he was doing, so I wonder what he could have to say in his
defense? Maybe:
1) actually, he was scouting just before the opening bear season, and
the moose charged him at close range;
2) the moose wandered into the Park after he wounded it, and he had
to follow up and make the kill;
3) he has been taking game on a subsistence basis for a long time,
and figured he had a traditional and customary right to a spring
moose.
I haven't heard or read more than just a news re****t, but if it's what
I think it is, King could get a stiff fine and lose his hunting gear,
including the ATV the meat was in. I just want to hear his
explanation. bookburn
PS: Here's what the AP re****ted, according to the Seattle Times.
(quote)
Local News: Thursday, April 10, 2008
Iditarod champion Jeff King charged with illegal moose kill
By The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King has been charged
with illegally killing a moose inside Denali National Park and
Preserve.
According to charging do***ents, King, who finished second this year
in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, also illegally drove an
all-terrain vehicle inside the park. Both charges are misdemeanors.
The case was investigated by national park rangers. Denali spokeswoman
Kris Fister said the moose kill site was inside the north border of
the park. King was hunting in the area last September and had set up
camp about a third of a mile north of the park boundary, Fister said.
King said Wednesday that he was not aware he'd been charged with
anything and declined comment.
King was hunting last September out of a camp about a third of a mile
north of the Denali park boundary, according to an affidavit filed in
federal court in Fairbanks by park ranger John Leonard. Leonard and an
Alaska state trooper, conducting a hunting patrol, found King at his
camp with parts from a freshly killed bull moose, along with an
all-terrain vehicle, the do***ent says.
Charging do***ents say King said he'd hunted in the area for the past
nine years and was using a GPS, so he was familiar with the border. He
also told the investigators that he had seen a silver park boundary
marker.
A subsequent search turned up a bone pile about 300 feet north of the
park boundary and a mile from King's camp. However, the bones
apparently had been moved from the kill site, which was inside the
park boundary about three quarters of a mile from King's camp and
clearly visible from it, the affidavit says.
Tire tracks between the kill site and the bone pile looked like tracks
left by an all-terrain vehicle, the affidavit says.
Moose cannot be taken inside the national park except by qualified
federal subsistence users, and the affidavit says King was not a
qualified subsistence hunter.
Each of the charges carry a penalty of up to six months in prison and
a maximum $5,000 fine, assistant U.S. attorney Stephen Cooper said.
King's arraignment is scheduled for May 8.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
(unquote)
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