{"id":64511,"date":"2019-11-06T16:26:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T23:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-who-killed-moose-fined-can-still-hunt-in-colorado\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T23:26:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T23:26:50","slug":"man-who-killed-moose-fined-can-still-hunt-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-who-killed-moose-fined-can-still-hunt-in-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who killed moose fined; can still hunt in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A Farmington man who mistakenly killed a moose can still hunt in Colorado, state wildlife officials determined.<\/span>Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Farmington man who shot and killed a moose that he mistook for an elk near Silverton last year has been fined $1,000 as a result of the incident, but state wildlife officials decided not to ban him from hunting in Colorado.<\/p>\n

On the evening of Oct. 21, 2018, the hunter, identified as Bruce Black, self-reported to authorities he had mistakenly killed a moose up South Mineral Creek Road<\/a>, northwest of Silverton.<\/p>\n

Black said he spotted an animal he thought was an elk lying down and in shadow around 6 p.m., as light was beginning to fade. He told authorities he was 300 yards away and saw the antlers and head of the animal straight on.<\/p>\n

Black did not have binoculars and was using only the scope of his rifle, which state wildlife officials say often contributes to misidentifying animals.<\/p>\n

The moose, which Black mistook for an elk, stood up, and Black took the shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was too dark to see coloration,\u201d Black told investigators.<\/p>\n

Black was charged with careless hunting, which carries a fine of up to $1,000. A spokesman with Colorado Parks and Wildlife said he was fined the full penalty.<\/p>\n

Black also faced an assessment of 20 hunting license suspension points. According to state law, a hunter with 20 points or more in a five-year period faces a suspension of his or her hunting license, with a CPW hearing officer determining the length of suspension.<\/p>\n

CPW, however, ultimately decided not to suspend Black\u2019s privilege to hunt in the state.<\/p>\n

In a statement sent to The Durango Herald<\/em>, CPW said the decision was based on the fact that Black\u2019s actions were negligent, not intentional. He also immediately self-reported, which allowed for the meat to be salvaged and donated to a family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Black did what CPW requires of hunters who mistakenly kill an animal and he paid his fines in county court,\u201d CPW said in the statement. \u201cA license suspension is meant to be remedial in nature and not further punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black, who is in his 80s and lives in Farmington, did not appear at his suspension hearing in Denver. CPW was not able to immediately provide a written statement he submitted, which was approved by state wildlife officials.<\/p>\n

At the time of the incident, Black made a statement to CPW apologizing and showing remorse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never felt like a bigger idiot,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel sick about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black, when contacted Wednesday afternoon, said he could not talk until later in the day.<\/p>\n

Recently, a Grand Junction couple admitted guilt and paid fines of about $2,000 for killing a moose on private property, where hunting is not allowed, near Lake City. The decision whether to suspend their hunting privileges in Colorado is pending.<\/p>\n

jromeo@ durangoherald.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wildlife officials say Bruce Black took proper actions after mistakenly killing animal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,2009,327,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-hunting","tag-silverton","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64511"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}