A Minnesota man voiced both remorse and a deep appreciation for Wyoming’s outdoors and conservation after he was convicted of shooting a moose he mistook for an elk in the Bighorn National Forest this autumn.
Jason van der Hagen, 45, of Willmar, Minnesota, told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that he wanted to apologize to the state of Wyoming, for mistaking a moose for an elk on the evening of Oct. 3 and shooting it.
That was all van der Hagen wanted to say in his interview, adding that he was “pretty transparent” about it in court. After a follow-up text message from Cowboy State Daily, van der Hagen clarified that he had a cow elk license, and the moose had no antlers. It was still a “stupid mistake,” he added.
Van der Hagen was fined $1,000 and sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation. Once he pays the fine and completes a hunter safety course, his Wyoming hunting privileges will be restored, says a sentencing order filed Dec. 12 in Sheridan Circuit Court.
He wrote a letter to the court when he gave his guilty plea.
“I want to apologize for this terrible mistake,” van der Hagen wrote in the Dec. 9 letter.
He said he’s always taken the privilege of hunting seriously and tries to pass on a deep respect for it to his children. He hunts with “people of the same integrity,” he continued, “with our love for it being in the activity of the hunt and the utmost respect for the animal, should one be provided in the end.”
“I believe the measure of success in our hunt is not by attaining any bag limit,” says van der Hagen’s letter, “but the success is in setting aside precious time to connect with the outdoors and experience the boundless possibilities for encounters with nature.”
To regain his Wyoming hunting rights again “will be an awesome privilege by the grandest of definition,” he added.
Taking a big game trophy animal without a license is punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000, Wyoming law says.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
