Hunter loses appeal for permit to sell thinhorn sheep horns found in riverbed

FORT NELSON, B.C. —A veteran hunter has lost his appeal to get a personal possession permit after he found an eight-year-old male’s horn set in the Chischa River bed.

In a July 17th decision, the Environmental Appeal Board (EAB) panel chair Nancy Moloney upheld a December 2023 decision by Michel Lavallee, then deputy regional manager of Recreational Fisheries and Wildlife Programs at the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, not to grant Gibson’s application.

Lavallee had said the horns were valued at more than $200, and Gibson filed with the EAB the next month.

That initial decision letter stated the average auction price the government received for thinhorn sheep horn sets between 2007 and 2010 was $374.50, ranging from $60 to $900.

Gibson did not dispute the auction prices, but disputed their relevance, because the horn set he found was not full curl and the tips were broomed off, which he said meant it was certified as “poor to fair.”

“These factors all reduce the value of a horn set,” Moloney wrote. “The appellant also notes that it has been 15 years since the last thinhorn sheep auction in 2010.”

Moloney said Gibson did not specify on his October 2023 permit application whether it was for scientific, educational, ceremonial or societal purposes.

She upheld the Lavallee decision because, under the regulation and available auction data, such horns would be valued above $200 and “not eligible to be granted a permit for personal use.”

However, Moloney recommended the government consider amending the section if it no longer intends to conduct wildlife auctions, as the current policy “may act as a deterrent for reporting horn finds.”

According to the government, 12,250 thinhorn sheep live among the mountains in BC’s northern third.