ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia — Anaheim Ducks defenseman Clayton Stoner was banned from hunting for three years and fined $10,000 for killing a grizzly bear on British Columbia’s central coast.
Stoner acknowledged through his lawyer Wednesday that he had breached the provincial Wildlife Act during the hunt in May 2013. Lawyer Marvin Stern said his client mistakenly believed he was qualified to participate as a resident. Stoner wasn’t in the Abbotsford court, and Stern pleaded guilty on his behalf to hunting without a license.
Provincial court Judge Brent Hoy accepted that Stoner thought he was qualified as a resident, but the law had still been breached.
“If one hunts, then one must do so responsibility,” he said.
The government dropped four other charges against Stoner, including knowingly making a false statement to obtain a hunting license, hunting out of season and unlawfully possessing dead wildlife.
Stoner, who’s originally from Port McNeill on Vancouver Island, owns a home in Langford, B.C. To obtain a commercial trophy license, a hunter must reside in B.C. for at least half of each of six months in the previous year.
Thumbnail photo via Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports Images