RIVERS
BANNER January 27, 2017
Volume 109, Issue 30
ersary v i n Celebrating our 108th An
Gazette-Reporter
Serving the Rivers, Rapid City and Oak River areas for 107 years
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Night lighting close to home?
By Sheila Runions Banner Staff
T
he issue of illegal hunting in off-seasons or during the night when hunters blind an animal with headlights or a spotlight, has been in the news of late. What one may not expect is that the matter would touch our community, and yet, it has. Colin and Ann Hunter live four miles east of Rivers and three miles north of Hwy. 25 on their acreage called The Farmers Field; they have lived there for 12.5 years. Their mixed farm includes chickens, sheep, goats, cattle, full-size and miniature horses. Chores are a must and each are completed in rotation. Such was the case when Colin left the yard and went less than a quarter-mile away to feed the main cow herd. What he discovered there was such a shock that he called Blue Hills RCMP. Cpl. Mike Boychuk says, “On Jan. 21 at 6:24 p.m. we received a report from Colin. He discovered one of his cows had been shot so we started an investigation. We are certainly perplexed as to why a livestock animal is being shot; this is odd.” Ann’s post on Facebook later that evening reads in part, “The cow, six weeks off calving, was shot clean in the head! We heard nothing and saw nothing as we were shrouded in thick fog all day, with zero visibility. No one has permission to shoot on our land. It’s not deer hunting season and it certainly is not cow hunting season! We work damn hard to make a living — being out in all weather caring for our livestock, not for idiots who have no respect for other people’s property to use our animals for bloody expensive target practice, at our expense!” The incident is “unsolved at this time. We are very concerned that someone is out there shooting livestock,” says Boychuk. “We’re looking for anyone who has information on who may have done this to come forward and let us know. And we urge people if there are other matters like this, please report it so we can investigate. You can call us at 204-726-7522 or phone Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-847.” In a phone interview with Ann she expressed dismay with the national police service. “RCMP have done nothing. They didn’t come out here because we couldn’t give them a suspect, we didn’t hear anything, we saw no truck or tire tracks, so we were just covering our own backs because you never know. What if someone doesn’t like us and this happens again? I certainly didn’t expect my post on Facebook to be shared all over Canada and beyond, to go viral that’s for sure! We’re not used to being in the limelight, and we don’t want to be, but suddenly you are thrust in that limelight and it’s quite scary actually. Katie (daughter) did an interview with Global News, CTV, CBC and their radio; we’ve been in Winnipeg Free Press, Brandon Sun, the Virden paper has called. It was talked about on CKLQ’s Open Mic show and we were discussed on Lunch Bags. Who would’ve thought this would become national news? A dead person doesn’t get this much attention but a dead cow! They all seem to connect it to night lighting but I’m not so sure. Twenty-four hours had passed since the last feed; if we had seen them at 5 one night and gone out the next morning we’d know it was done at night, but it was 4 p.m. when he found her and she was still soft. If it was -30C, she would’ve been a block of ice in a couple hours, but it was a mild day. Manitoba Conservation said she could’ve been dead six or eight hours, we just don’t know.” Ann goes on to say some comments on Facebook have been illogical; some have posted Hunters killed it themselves for insurance or meat. r first cow lost is o r ded cti le so we have nothin to ain. he was just dewormed last week and you have to wait at least 40 days to eat that meat. And why would we kill a cow that was going to calve? It’s just ridiculous really; these people aren’t thinking. It certainly wasn’t us!”
Photo by Ann Hunter
Typically the Hunter family rides their horses to bring their cattle back home but this one needed some assistance; it was killed by an unauthorized “hunter.”
Legion award winner
By Sheila Runions Banner Staff
I
n the Dec. 22 issue of Rivers Banner it was reported that Rivers Legion had selected an assortment of winners in the annual Nov. 11 poster and prose contest. It was anno nced that the first place winner in the Grade 8 colour poster was now eligible for competition in the zone level. Last week Branch No. 75’s president and vice-president, Garry Nielsen (L) and Ken Young respectively, stopped at the high school to congratulate Makayla Bartlett on winning at the zone level. Her poster now advances to the district level and should she win there, it’s off to provincials and possibly nationals. Besides the bragging rights of these wins, Makayla is now $45 richer; $20 from Photo by Carol Fortune Rivers and the rest from zone.