Troopers seek poacher of Turnagain sheep

Alaska State Troopers today appealed to the public for information about the poaching of a Dall sheep along the Seward Highway near Indian.

The beheaded animal was found by a hiker near the Falls Creek trail head at about noon Sunday, some 50 yards off the highway, said state wildlife trooper Grant Cooper of Girdwood, who estimated the animal died 72 to 96 hours earlier. It was skinned and the meat taken.

The state game management unit in which the sheep was found, 14C, was last open to bowhunters in early October.

It's not the first time sheep regularly seen along the highway south of Anchorage have been poached.

In 2006, Anchorage taxidermist Robert McConnell and mechanic Douglas Perfetto were convicted of illegally killing two Dall sheep there. McConnell was sentenced to six months in jail, $25,000 in fines and probation restrictions. Perfetto, who made a deal with prosecutors, was sentenced to 17 days in jail and fined $7,200.

Perfetto testified McConnell also bragged about selling animal parts, such as hides, horns and bear gallbladders, sometimes using the Internet to communicate with the buyers. Perfetto said he saw more than a dozen sets of goat horns in McConnell's garage.

Anyone with information is asked to call state wildlife troopers in Girdwood at 783-0972.

"It's not regular, but it happens occasionally in the area," Cooper said.

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