Man banned from hunting in Idaho for life after roping, killing moose

ELLIS — A 39-year-old man will never be allowed to hunt again in the state of Idaho after he admitted to roping a moose by the neck, killing it, and leaving the carcass behind.

Magistrate Judge James Howard Barrett Jr. sentenced Spencer Oldham to 90 days in jail for misdemeanor charges of unlawful taking of game animals, birds or furbearers; unlawful possession of wildlife; and wasteful destruction of wildlife.

Oldham pleaded guilty to the first two counts and gave an Alford plea to the third count.

An Alford plea is a guilty plea in which the defendant continues to assert their innocence but admits that a jury would likely find them guilty based on the evidence presented.

Oldham’s jail time was then suspended, and he was placed on unsupervised probation for a period of one year. He is also banned from obtaining an Idaho hunting license for the rest of his life. He will also be required to pay over $10,000 in civil penalties and fines.

The case

On Aug. 17, a senior conservation officer with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game was sent to the East Fork of the Pahsimeroi Valley after a report of a dead moose.

When he arrived, the officer found “a dead bull moose, rotting and bloated in an open area of short sage on a bench above the river bottom,” according to court documents.

The officer reported that the right tines of the moose antlers were “bloody from where velvet growth had been damaged,” and that the “trauma appeared to be near the neck of the animal due to bruising and an abundance of maggots.”

The officer reportedly found no bullet or arrow wounds on the animal.

Court documents say Idaho does not have a moose harvest season in August, and every bull moose is considered a trophy animal.

Investigators identified Oldham as the man who killed the moose, although it is not clear how they did so. According to police reports, Oldham admitted that he “roped the bull moose around the front left leg and neck.”

The moose then “balled up” after it hit the ground and never got back up. Oldham reportedly told officers, “I know I shouldn’t have done it. I had regrets after.”

According to Oldham, he was in the creek by himself when the moose came out of the river bottom, and he roped it. He told officers he took the rope off the moose, and the “moose was breathing heavy,” and it would not get up.

“The moose meat was not cared for and spoiled after being neglected and exposed to the elements,” court documents say.

Oldham reportedly said he “didn’t want to kill the moose, but that’s how it played out” and stated he didn’t call it in because “I was guilty.”

Court documents state that he and the other individuals he was hunting with “attempted to get the moose up similar to how they get a cow up after it’s been roped.” The moose did not get up, and they left it.

Oldham told officers he found out the moose was dead when a friend told him “some hunters saw the carcass,” and he responded, “I knew I had f***** up.” When asked if he had any questions for the officers, he reportedly stated, “Nope, I’m 100% guilty of it … it was all me.”

According to court documents, Oldham did not have an Idaho hunting license or a moose tag.

Officers interviewed four other men who were with Oldham that day. One stated that the group was riding horses, pushing cattle from one grazing area to another, and many of the others did not see Oldham rope the moose.

After the group left the area, one of the men said they were stopped by a man and a woman on an ATV, who told them there was a dead moose in the road.

Another of the men who was interviewed claimed he “saw the moose breathing and then continued back to the truck.”