YouTube video duck shooters fined, banned

Three Saskatchewan men charged after a YouTube video showed ducklings being shot illegally were handed hefty fines Monday, as well as a three-year ban on acquiringhunting licences.

InSaskatoon provincial court,David Fraser, 30, James Fraser, 23,and Jeremy Rowlands of Cudworth, Sask.,pleaded guilty toa total of 15 counts of violating federal and provincial wildlife protection laws.

The judgeimposed fines and licence bans on all three men:the Fraser brothers must pay $5,000 each andRowlands must pay $6,000.

"At the time that we did what we did we didn't know it was a crime," David Fraser told reporters after the court proceedings. "We had no idea that bullets ricocheted off water. And we made every effort at the time to make sure thatthere was nothing within eye view on the horizon of anywhere that we shot."

Two rifles thathad been seized inthe investigation were ordered forfeited to the Crown.

'We thought we were just having fun. Really immature, stupid fun.' David Fraser, on illegal shooting of wildlife

Charges were laidon the weekend after a national outcry over a four-minute video that appeared on the YouTube website.

The video, which has been viewed more than 60,000 times, shows the men repeatedlyfiring a rifleat waterfowl swimming on ponds. Some of the shooting took placefrom inside a car.

Shows men laughing

In one part of thevideo,the carcass ofonebird is repeatedly blasted by one of the men.The menlaughed abouttheir actions.

When asked why the three posted their video to the YouTube site, Fraser said they thought the material was funny.

"Why did we post it? Because at the time we thought it was funny," he said. "And as soon as we found out it was a crime, we took it down."

Althoughofficials initially thought the videomight havebeen shot in southeastern Alberta, it was later determined it was done in Saskatchewan near where the menlive.

"We thought we were just having fun. Really immature, stupid fun.It was silly to do," Fraser said. "This has been really educational and I regret that it's happened. But it's happened and we're trying to move forwardwith it."

Outrage over the video resulted in numerous tips to the Saskatchewan Environment Ministry's Turn in Poachers hotline, which led to the trio's arrest on the weekend, ministry officials said.

"I've never seen such a response, and a rapid response, and outrage," Gary Harrison, manager of the ministry's special investigations unit, told CBC News on Monday.

Animal rights groups had offered rewards for information that would lead to locating the three men.

"It was, really, indiscriminate killing of migratory birds," Harrison said.

Fines imposed

Among the illegal activities visible in the video is the shooting of birds out of season and shooting birds swimming on the water, he said.

The menwerechargedwith violating theSaskatchewan Wildlife Act and the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act.

All threewere charged with hunting migratory birds out of season and using a rifle to hunt migratory birds, careless discharge of a firearm and allowing edible game to be wasted.

Rowlandswas additionally charged with discharging a firearm from a vehicle.