Hunter loses privileges for letting moose rot

A Nampa, Idaho, man has been stripped of his hunting privileges for life for wasteful destruction of a trophy bull moose.

Farrell E. Johnson, 65, pleaded guilty last month to the misdemeanor charge in an Idaho County court.

The charge was filed as a felony but was reduced to a misdemeanor in exchange for his guilty plea.

Johnson was also fined $4,080, sentenced to two years probation, and the antlers and cape from the moose were seized, Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials said.

In November, two deer hunters found a large bull moose carcass that had been left to rot on an Idaho County hillside.

A couple of days earlier, the hunters had met Johnson and his friends at the kill site and offered to help pack out the meat from the moose kill, but Johnson had declined the offer.

When the deer hunters returned later they found that only the antlers, cape and about 20 pounds of meat had been removed.

Bull moose can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds, yielding several hundred pounds of meat.

Although Johnson had a valid permit to shoot the moose, wasting the animal was a crime, said Conservation Officer Larry Willmott.

“Johnson made some really poor decisions afterwards by not salvaging the meat and allowing this animal to go to waste,” Willmott said.

Friday Harbor, Wash.

Minor quake in San Juans

A minor earthquake was reported Tuesday afternoon southwest of Friday Harbor, Wash., the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network said.

One Friday Harbor resident reported feeling some brief, minor shaking, KING-TV reported.

The magnitude 3.6 quake, reported at 1:37 p.m., was centered about 15 miles south-southwest of the San Juan Islands community at a depth of 27 miles, the seismograph network said.

– Associated Press

St. Anthony, Idaho

Bear injures man on Targhee trail

A man hiking on the Targhee Creek trail was attacked by a bear and injured, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office said.

The 53-year-old was hiking alone Monday near Targhee Pass when he came across a sow bear and her cub, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The bear charged, and the man fell to the ground in the fetal position.

The bear bit him in the shoulder and hip before leaving the area.

The man, whose name and hometown were not released, hobbled back toward the trailhead, where he ran into a group of horseback riders, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The group lent him a horse so he could ride to the place where his friends were waiting.

The man received medical attention at a clinic in West Yellowstone, Mont., but was not hospitalized, the Sheriff’s Office said.

– Associated Press