A former Pinedale-area resident who was once blasted by Australia’s prime minister for snatching a baby wombat from its mother has been sentenced to one year of probation for a Wyoming hunting violation.
Samantha Strable, 26, was sentenced Thursday in Sublette County Circuit Court after pleading no contest to a charge of a nonresident hunting without a guide in a wilderness area, The Herald Sun reported.
Strable, who sometimes goes by Sam Jones on social media, appeared in court via remote video and was also sentenced to 180 days in jail, suspended, and fined $575.40.
A message sent to Strable requesting comment was not answered by publication time.
Initially Faced Eight Charges
The case goes back to November 2025, when Strable faced eight misdemeanor charges.
Those included six counts of false swearing and one count each of taking wildlife without a license and nonresident hunting without a guide in a wilderness area, according to court records.
As the case advanced, prosecutors dropped all of the charges except hunting without a guide, according to reports.
Court records indicate that she was born in 2000 and is listed as living in Great Falls, Montana.
Strable was booked into the Sublette County Jail on Nov. 21 and released on her own recognizance that same day.
She previously claimed residency in Pinedale but was absent from Wyoming long enough to lose her status as a resident hunter, according to an affidavit written by Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Jacob Miller and filed with court documents.
Miller wrote that he met Strable on Oct. 15, 2025, at the Newfork trailhead in Sublette County. She was headed out on an elk hunt and planned to be in the vicinity of Rainbow Lake.
According to Wyoming statutes, a person must live in Wyoming for a full calendar year before applying for hunting licenses as a resident.
Resident hunter status is nullified if a person is out of state for more than 180 days in a calendar year and/or abandons domicile in Wyoming.
Non-residents also may not hunt in wilderness areas in Wyoming without a guide, according to state statutes.
Why The Guide Law?
A guide can be either a paid professional guide or an unpaid, licensed “resident companion,” according to regulations.
The companion must obtain a non-commercial guide license from Game and Fish.
Wyoming outfitters told Cowboy State Daily the guide law exists mostly for safety reasons.
“I think there are people (non-residents) who would be absolutely fine in the wilderness. But that doesn’t save the people who are going to die,” said Dustin Stetter of Dubois, president of the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association.
The guide/resident companion requirement likely saved many lives and lots of trouble, said Stetter, who runs a hunting camp about 20 miles into the Fitzpatrick Wilderness area in Fremont County.
It’s a place where the weather can change quickly and dramatically, he said.
He recalled that he and his employees were once called to aid in the search for a man who’d gone missing in the wilderness.
“I personally didn’t find that guy. But one of the people from our camp found that guy. He was just lying dead in a tent,” he said.
Stetter added that it makes sense for Wyoming residents to support the hunting-guide rule because “you have a place to go, where everybody in Utah can’t.”
Outfitter and guide Lee Livingston of Cody said some argue non-residents can go hiking, fishing, or small-game hunting in wilderness areas without guides. So, they might question why big-game hunters need a guide.
Even so, he thinks it’s best that big-game hunters have a guide or resident companion.
“There’s some real value to having that (guide requirement). When you start rolling into that backcountry, 15 or 20 miles in, you’d better have somebody with you who knows what they’re doing,” he said.
That’s particularly true in remote areas with grizzly bears, Livingston said.
During hunting season, grizzlies are in a state of increased, incessant hunting as they try to pile on fat before going into their winter dens.
“What we’re seeing more and more of is grizzly bears that try to take an elk after it’s hit the ground,” he said.
Back when grizzlies were rare, “if you had an elk hit the ground, you rolled its guts out, went back to camp, got your pack animals, and came back to it later,” he said.
Now, with a growing grizzly population, it’s best to have a guide with pack stock ready and waiting to get an elk packed out as quickly as possible after it’s shot, Livingston said.
Wombat Ruckus in Australia
Strable, who was building a reputation as an outdoors influencer on social media, set off a firestorm of outrage in March 2025, when she allegedly grabbed a baby wombat during a visit to Australia.
A video surfaced that reportedly showed her grabbing the wombat from in front of its mother and running back toward her vehicle with it.
She was roundly condemned by Aussies. Even the country’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, publicly blasted her, according to reports from Australian media.
Strable fired back at her critics in a statement, claiming that wombats are treated as pests in Australia.
“The Australian government allows and permits the slaughter of wombats. Thousands each year are shot, poisoned to suffer, and trapped legally,” she wrote in the statement.
“Landowners rip up wombat burrows with heavy machinery, poison them with fumigation, and shoot them whenever they can. Quietly, of course, so as not to face the wrath that has come upon me,” Strable added.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
