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Conservation Service
Kelowna teen fined for raising wild goose
KELOWNA – A 17-year-old animal lover from Kelowna says B.C. Conservation Officers confiscated a goose…
Sicamous community ‘relieved’ after trio of grizzly bears relocated
SICAMOUS – The Conservation Officer Service hopes a group of three female grizzly bears will…
Conservation officer frustrated by number of people ignoring rules in North Okanagan
VERNON – The lack of compliance with hunting, fishing and other wildlife-related rules in the…
Firearms seized after moose illegally shot in Salmon Arm
SALMON ARM – Conservation officers are investigating after a moose was illegally shot in Salmon…
Conservation officers come to aid of deer stranded on ice in Vernon
VERNON – Conservation officers in Vernon rescued a deer caught in a slippery situation yesterday.…
Mysterious goat and chicken killer trapped and killed in Ellison
ELLISON – A young cougar that dismembered and killed some goats and chickens in Ellison…
Why our cities and towns are hazardous to deer
KELOWNA – Over the weekend, Conservation Officers rescued a large buck that was became ensnared…
Kelowna Conservation Officers save large buck tangled in volleyball net
KELOWNA – Conservation Officers reportedly came to the rescue of a large buck that was…
Nearly 30 deer killed at North Okanagan game farm due to compliance issues
ENDERBY – A North Okanagan farmer is outraged after provincial authorities arrived at his property…
Urban deer attacks on the rise with burgeoning population
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – Deer attacks are becoming more common in the region, and people are mostly…
Curious bobcat pokes head into Okanagan home
VERNON - A curious animal believed to be a bobcat stuck its head inside a Vernon home recently. Conservation officer Tanner Beck says a homeowner in the Silver Star Road area left her door open around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 and a bobcat 'poked its head in to see what was going on.’ “It...
Cougar shot near elementary school
LUMBY - A cougar was put down by the Conservation Service Monday morning in Lumby after it attacked livestock. Conservation officers trapped and shot the large, roughly five-year-old, 170 pound male cougar, after it killed a resident’s sheep and alpaca in the Schwartz Road area behind J.W. Inglis Elementary. Conservation officer Ken Owens says the...
How a standoff between a horse, two dogs and cougar ended in Lumby
LUMBY - It was a sight Lumby resident Tina Berg never expected: Her 1,300 pound horse practically nose-to-nose with a cougar. It was around 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 21, when Berg, who lives about three kilometres out of Lumby in a rural area, heard her dogs barking. “It was a bark I just know means...
Retired conservation officer speaks out about the realities of a service stretched too thin
“YOU CAME TO WORK EVERY DAY KNOWING YOU COULD NOT FULFILL EVERY PHONE CALL AND REPORTED COMPLAINT” KELOWNA - Retired B.C. conservation officer Greg Hoyer went into the field to protect fisheries and wildlife; by the time he left in 2009 that was only a fraction of his job. “Over the years, the government just...
HELSTON: Hundreds of bears die every year for this stupid reason
This goes out to anyone who’s left their garbage out and had a bear get into it; you might as well have put a bullet through its head. It sounds harsh, I know, but hundreds of bears across B.C. are killed by conservation officers every year because they’ve grown habituated to garbage. Sorry to break...
HELSTON: Don’t be afraid to call the conservation officer
Residents across the Interior contacted the conservation service over the past year to report wildlife encounters ranging from simple sightings to bizarre and in some cases, tragic extremes. There was a cougar found inside a Vernon home chewing on a squeaky toy, a pack of wolves that killed a woman’s dog in Merritt, aggressive coyotes...
A cougar killed her dog and dropped it at her feet
VERNON - A Vernon family is readjusting to life without their beloved family dog after he was killed by a cougar in their backyard. Milton, a six-year-old Chihuahua/Maltese, was let out to play as usual the morning of Sept. 21 in the backyard of the family’s McLennan Road property in the BX area of Vernon....
Cougar discovered inside a home, chewing on a dog toy
VERNON - It wasn’t a 911 call anyone would ever expect to make. “There’s a cougar in my house chewing on a squeaky toy,” says a Westside Road resident who asked to be referred to only by her first name, Verena. “The police initially thought I might be hallucinating.” Verena, 53, just returned home from...