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Alaska Man Sentenced for Dall Sheep Poaching
Anchorage, Alaska – In a significant blow to the wildlife conservation efforts in Alaska, a Canadian man has been sentenced for his role in illegally hunting and selling Dall sheep in the state.
Patrick J. Downey, 67, of Turner Valley, Alberta, Canada, was sentenced to pay a $20,000 fine and was placed on probation for five years. During this period, he is prohibited from hunting or guiding in the United States. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Beistline on May 10, 2013.
The charges against Downey arose from his service as a licensed Alaska assistant guide in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in 2008 and 2009. For approximately twenty years, Downey had guided hunters in the Brooks Range while employed by Master Guide-Outfitter Joe Hendricks, co-owner of Fair Chase Hunts (FCH).
According to Assistant U. S. Attorney Stephen Cooper, who prosecuted the case, the facts Downey admitted to in court showed that in 2008, he guided client Thomas McGann of Longmont, Colorado, who shot a Dall sheep mistakenly believing it was of legal size. To obscure the fact that one horn of the Dall sheep was less than the legal minimum full curl, Master Guide Joe Hendricks and Downey altered the horn by hammering it with a rock. The horns passed the required Fish and Game inspection in Fairbanks, but after further investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, agents seized the horns from McGann.
Similarly, in August 2009, Downey’s client Delbert Oney of Lockwood, Missouri, mistakenly shot a ram with under-length horns. Downey and Oney then altered the tips of both horns by hammering them on a rock to conceal their sub-legal size. The horns failed state inspection and were seized.
For his part in these and other guiding offenses, Hendricks was sentenced in U. S. District Court in Fairbanks in August 2012 to pay a fine of $125,000 and was restricted from hunting and guiding for five years. Hunting clients McGann and Oney were sentenced in February and April 2013, for transporting their unlawfully-taken Dall sheep and each paid a fine of $10,000, was restricted from hunting for one year and forfeited their sheep.
To date, this investigation led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement, has resulted in the convictions of nearly a dozen FCH guides, employees and clients. Registered guide Christopher Cassidy, co-owner of FCH, pled guilty in June 2011, to two felonies and eleven misdemeanors for guiding hunts that involved failing to salvage all edible meat of a Dall sheep, possessing an untagged grizzly bear, and guiding outside Cassidy’s authorized guide use area in ANWR.
U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler commends the United States Fish & Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement for Northern Alaska, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge staff, and Alaska Wildlife Troopers for the investigation of this case.
Key Facts
- State: Alaska
- Category: Wildlife Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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