An Idaho man has lost his hunting privileges for life after pleading guilty to roping a bull moose by the neck and leaving it there to die during the summer of 2025.
Spencer Oldham, 39, appeared in Custer County Court on Dec. 15, where he was sentenced by a judge as part of his plea deal, according to East Idaho News. Court records show that Oldham pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges: unlawful taking of game animals, unlawful possession of wildlife, and wasteful destruction of wildlife.
A hunter found and reported the dead moose in the East Fork of the Pahsimeroi Valley in August. Officers with the Idaho Game and Fish Department found the moose carcass rotting and bloated on a bench above the river on Aug. 17. Upon inspection, they found trauma and bruising around the moose’s neck, as well as bloody antlers where the velvet had apparently been damaged. There were no other obvious wounds on the animal, and Idaho’s moose season was closed at the time. (Even if the season had been open, Oldham had neither a hunting license nor a moose tag in his possession.)
Oldham told officers that he roped the bull moose around its front left leg and neck as it was coming out of the river bottom. He was part of a group that was riding horses and moving cattle, and he said he was alone when he threw his rope. Oldham said the moose “balled up” and never got back up. He said the group tried but failed to get the moose up, and then they left it there, according to court records. He later told officers when questioned that he never reported the incident because he knew he’d done wrong.
“I knew I shouldn’t have done it,” Oldham told wildlife officers during their investigation, court documents show. “I had regrets after … I knew I had fucked up.”
Magistrate Judge James Howard Jr. sentenced Oldham to a suspended 90-day jail sentence, one year of unsupervised probation, and more than $10,000 in civil penalties and fines. The judge also banned the 39-year-old man from obtaining an Idaho hunting license for the rest of his life. Oldham’s lifetime hunting ban will apply to the other 49 states as well, due to the provisions of the Interstate wildlife violators compact.
Court documents and a report from the IDFG officer show that Oldham knew he was guilty and regretted his decision. He told the officer that he didn’t intend to kill the moose, “but that’s how it played out.”
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