http://www.bclocalnews.com/richmond_southdelta/richmondreview/news/12518146.html
Richmond men fined for killing pregnant doe
By Martin van den Hemel - Richmond Review - December 14, 2007

A pregnant deer and another that had just given birth were the target of three Richmond men, who used high intensity spotlights to stun the animals before using a rifle to shoot them after dark last June near Pemberton.

Conservation officer Dave Jevons told The Richmond Review there's no doubt that the shooters knew the deer were pregnant females-which would have been obvious from their rounded and distended bellies and their lack of antlers-and fears they were targeted for future use in herbal remedies or as a delicacy.

Shooting female deers is illegal year round, Jevons said, and the season for hunting male deer, or bucks, runs generally from about the middle of September through the end of November, by which time the male's antlers are larger and become an easily distinguishable feature.

Results of a necropsy indicate one of the animals was killed around midnight, the other around 10 p.m. Hunting at night is incredibly dangerous, Jevons noted.

But exactly why Bing Tom Xie, described as the "ring leader," targeted the two deer may never be known.

He had a valid hunting licence, but never revealed to the court why he shot the two deer when he pled guilty in North Vancouver provincial court last month to four counts under the Wildlife Act.

The 50-year-old was fined $7,000 and received a two-year term of probation. During that probationary period, he's barred from hunting in B.C., and from possessing wildlife and firearms or any other hunting weapons.

Xie and two other Richmond men, Zhiwei Jia, 48, and Dong Pang, 49, were inside a Toyota Sienna minivan when they were pulled over during a late-night RCMP road check near Pemberton.

Inside the vehicle, police found a loaded SKS semi-automatic rifle, a .30-06 bolt action rifle, and two dead female deer, one carrying two fawns, the other showing evidence of having given birth, perhaps just hours earlier.

Jia and Pang also pled guilty to unlawful possession of wildlife and were each fined $1,000 and received six-month recognizance with probation terms similar to Xie's.

Jevons said there are indications that the deer weren't killed for their meat. Ethical hunters gut their animals so that the meat doesn't cook by its own body heat, and both seized deers were intact, he said.

In the case of the doe that had given birth, "it's a certainty" that her fawn or fawns died because their mother wasn't there to nurse them, Jevons said.

Aside from the fines, the trio forfeited their firearms and hunting equipment.