Reward for ram killing

The dead ram was found partially dismembered and propped on a rock about 6 p.m. April 10 by fish and wildlife troopers from the Oregon State Police. The carcass was located at a rockslide area near milepost 118 on Interstate 84, east of Rufus.

Senior Trooper Mark Jubitz of The Dalles Area Command is investigating this incident. He requests that anyone with information about the case call him at 541-705-5330.

According to OSP reports, a necropsy determined the ram had been shot with a firearm and left to waste. A press release issued by the agency said there is no indication that the latest killing has any connection to the death of two rams the week before that occurred to the east of the current kill site.

In early April, Cody Plagmann, 37, of Albany and Justin Samora, 32, of Layton, Utah, were arrested for poaching two bighorn sheep east of Biggs Junction, also in Gilliam County.

Fish and wildlife troopers arrived at the scene after receiving a tip from a passing motorist that someone appeared to be gutting a big game animal along the freeway.

When law enforcement officials arrived, they reportedly found Samora sitting in a vehicle. They received a report that another man was hiding nearby in the brush.

Troopers found Plagmann along the railroad tracks two miles east of the scene. They also recovered the severed heads of two bighorn sheep.

An investigation later determined that the two men had worked together to shoot the animals and remove their heads. The carcasses were later recovered but could not be salvaged.

The two men were booked into the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facilities in The Dalles on several charges.

Bighorn sheep were wiped out in Oregon in the mid-1940s and weren’t reintroduced until 1954. Wildlife officials estimate there are now 3,500-3,700 bighorns statewide.

Drawing a bighorn tag is a once-in-a-lifetime hunting opportunity for Oregonians.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offered about 95 bighorn hunting tags in 2015.

The hunter’s association offers an ongoing Turn-In-Poachers (TIP) reward of $400 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of someone illegally possessing, killing, taking and/or waste of deer, elk, antelope, bear, cougar, big horn sheep, mountain goat, moose and game birds.

Tip rewards are also given for the illegal taking, netting, snagging and/or dynamiting of salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and large numbers of any fish listed under Oregon statute as a game fish.

The reward is also issued for prosecution of a poacher who is hunting or fishing illegally.

Increased damage to wildlife habitat led the hunters association to also create the Natural Resources Reward Program that offers a $200 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone harming natural resources by the illegal use of motorized vehicles in restricted or prohibited areas.

The TIP hotline is 1-800-452-7888 or an email can be sent to TIP@state.or.us.