Nearly $9,000 in fine for BC man in bear parts case

A British Columbia man was fined thousands of dollars in Port Coquitlam provincial court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to multiple charges of bear trafficking.

Fifty-two-year-old Hong Tao Yang of Abbotsford pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in bear paws and one count of trafficking in bear parts.

He was fined $8,625.

According to the Crown, the BC Conservation Service (COS) was notified by a member of the public in August 2022 that an employee at a recycling plant in Maple Ridge had asked him if he had black bear paws he could sell.

The employee was later identified as Yang, the court heard.

Between August and October 2022, an undercover COS officer posing as a hunter visited the recycling facility and established a relationship with Yang.

The court heard the undercover officer sold Yang bear parts on three separate occasions, each time being told it was illegal.

The Crown conceded there was no evidence Yang had resold the parts and agreed the minimum fine for each count was appropriate.

Provincial court Judge Nicholas Preovolos accepted the defense’s claim that Yang used the parts for traditional Chinese medicine.

Outside the courthouse, conservation officer Jordan Ferguson told reporters that the COS hopes this will deter others from committing these types of crimes.

“Possession of these parts is illegal, even if it is only for personal use,” he said. “If you create a market just by buying this stuff, it can escalate a bit and more people will do it, and then we have problems with animal populations.”

He says it is critical that people who hear or see suspicious activity contact the Report All Poachers and Polluters hotline.

“We rely enormously on the public. There are only so many conservation officers in the province,” Ferguson said.

Yang was given 18 months to pay the fine.