Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Oct 07/05) - Inuvik resident Kenny St. Amand was given one month to pay a $575 fine for wasting meat, after he pleaded guilty to the charge filed against him under the Wildlife Act.

The charge stemmed from a tip made by a "concerned resident" to the regional Environment and Natural Resources office.

"This comes up every now and then," said Tim Devine of Environment and Natural Resources.

"And we always follow up these calls."

In this situation, a renewable resources officer found that Amand had allowed caribou meat to spoil beyond human consumption in the back of his pickup truck.

According to Devine, when one harvests a big game animal, it is illegal to allow that meat, defined from the knee joint all the way up to but not including the head or organs, to spoil.

Discarding a muskox or caribou hide, as someone did recently by the Mackenzie River, is not contrary to the Wildlife Act, while wasting the hide of a fur bearing animal, including martin, beaver, fox, wolf, lynx and bear, is.