A Gresham man lost his trophy bighorn sheep head when an offduty wildlife trooper led other troopers to the site when the animal’s meat was abandoned to predators. Any animal taken in the state must, by law, be fully utilized by law.

Ronald Edward Cecil, 49, of Gresham, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor waste of wildlife crime in a Gilliam County Circuit Court last week. The court’s sentence included suspension of hunting privileges, restitution payment, and forfeiture of the head and horns of the bighorn sheep he killed and left to waste.

Cecil fell under suspicion in November 2008, when Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Trooper Sean Carothers contacted Cecil as he hiked out of the John Day River area.

Carothers was off duty at the time, but noticed that Cecil was hiking out of the area with the head and horns of a bighorn sheep. An investigation revealed that Cecil possessed the proper tag and had lawfully taken the bighorn sheep during the E. John Day River No. 3 bighorn sheep hunt. However, during the contact, Carothers was suspicious that Cecil did not recover the meat from the sheep as required by law.