Warning. Some of the details in the story may be upsetting to readers. The owner of a remote, fly-in lodge in northern Manitoba is shocked and disgusted after discovering a mass slaughter of caribou on his property last month. Nick Scigliano owns Nueltin Lake Lodge, a fly-in lodge about 30 kilometres south of the Manitoba-Nunavut border. In April, he went to check on the lodge and found someone had broken into it. He also witnessed people on snowmobiles chasing a herd of caribou across the lake, with dead animals lying on the ice. On the flight out, he saw what he described as a “killing field.” “There were lots and lots of caribou that were laying dead in the snow,” Scigliano said. “When I got out of the helicopter earlier, there could have been four feet of snow, and it looked like the snow was just big patches of red from the blood of them being killed and butchered.” Scigliano reported what he saw to RCMP. He went with them several days later to see the facility, finding more evidence of caribou hunting and harvesting, as well as damage to the cabins on the property. Scigliano also discovered slaughtered pregnant caribou cows. “I can’t unsee this,” he said. “I never could have imagined something like that could have occurred.” Scigliano said it will cost him about $100,000 to repair the damage to the cabins and properly dispose of the carcasses. He hopes arrests will be made. “We just need to make meaningful change up there to protect these animals for all the stakeholders involved,” Scigliano said. “We need to send a message that lawlessness cannot just occur.” Nueltin Lake Provincial Park, where the lodge is located, was created in 2010 to help protect wildlife in the area, including caribou. While caribou hunting is legal in Manitoba, hunters are limited to one male caribou. Indigenous hunting rights are enshrined in the Canadian Constitution. The Manitoba Wildlife Federation spoke out against the incident in a Facebook bulletin. “It should go without question that harvesting female caribou during that late winter season when the cows are preparing to have their young displays an utter disregard for the animal or its conservation,” the bulletin said. Premier Wab Kinew condemned the incident in Tuesday’s question period at the Manitoba legislature. “Anybody who participated in this has no respect for animals, has no right to be able to hunt in this province and will be pursued and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Kinew said. The province’s Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures department and RCMP are both investigating. No arrests have been made.
