Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale says no matter how much the illegal hunt of the threatened Joir River Herd has frustrated and angered her, she cannot put the lives of her conservation officers on the line.

It was a bloody scene last week that had Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale very frustrated but safety was her priority.

When 45 Innu hunters from the Quebec North Shore, along with more than 100 elders, women and children, pounced on the endangered Joir River Caribou Herd and had (up until press time) decimated half the herd, Dunderdale says the situation created a very volatile scene that she could not put her conservation officers in direct risk.

The Joir River herd, which is protected by the Provincial Endangered Species Act and the Federal Species at Risk Act, is estimated to have had only 100 in the herd before the illegal hunt started.

In a telephone interview with the Aurora, Minister Dunerdale said she understands the frustration of the people with the illegal hunting of a threatened heard and that she too, feels the same frustration.

"But the situation is one with a lot of volatility; we have 45 hunters on the move and those hunters are interspersed with at least another 50 or 60 snowmobilers," she explained the situation last week. "We have 100 plus, elders, women and children around there. We have people who really aren't practicing safe methods in terms of how they are using their firearms."

Dunderdale said she's received reports of hunter firing from moving snowmobiles, as well as conservation officers coming in with helicopters with the Innu getting under the helicopters indicating they'd throw ropes into the rotors and they've charged at them.

"So it's a very, very volatile situation," she reiterated. "The health and safety of those conservation officers is the main concern, my concern is also for the well being of caribou, but I have to put the lives of my conservation officers first."

The minister says she doesn't understand the motives or the logic in such an unnecessary killing of this threatened herd, pointing out there are hundreds of thousands of caribou they could be hunting just as easily.

Dunderdale says her department has been making efforts to communicate and involve Innu and as recently as March 8 her department met with them to share scientific information on herd counts and statistics and asked them to not hunt the herd because of the low numbers.

"We have been meeting with them going back to 2002 when no other government would meet regularly with them," she said. "Our conservation officers talked to them at their cabin last Friday night."

If it's about making a political statement, Dunderdale says she'd like to know what statement they want to make because if it's about recognizing traditional hunting rights, this province does that. If it's because the Quebec Innu don't agree with the province's counts on the animals, then they have not show any evidence to contradict it, she said.

"You try to be respectful of people's traditions and what they believe," said the minister. "But to say that elders dreamed or drumming told them there were more animals in the herd, then what do you do based on that? What's generated out of our department of Natural Resources and the department of Conservation and Environment is what we have to go by and we have provided the information to them. We have also to participate in the caribou recovery."

Last week's action though has done little to encourage the minister that any communications have gotten through, and she is as saddened, she says, as she is frustrated that it has come to such a fate for those caribou in the Joir River Herd.

Dunderdale says with certainty even though the hunt isn't being stopped, the repercussions will follow and the full weight of the law will come to those who have broken the law.

Still photos, videos and eyewitness accounts are providing evidence to enforcement agencies to lay charges.

"I have seen a number of the videos and people can be clearly identified," she said. "And where the evidence warrants it, charges will be laid. People can rely on that. Now that is not much help to the poor animals. As a government we have a responsibility of stewardship for these animals and that is extremely important to us, but we are also responsible for the people who work for us. As much as we value these animals, I am not prepared to put the lives of those conservation officers in jeopardy."

Reports that some of the hunters had left the area last Wednesday were encouraging for the minister; but information was also coming in that one band of hunters had left the hunting ground only to get more fuel and return to do more hunting.

As for what happens after the hunt is finally over, from transporting the animals or even to the selling of the illegal meat, Minister Dunderdale is clear in her message.

"We are serving notice that if you are transporting illegal meat then the vehicle used, we will confiscate," she said. "There's no question. Nobody mistake that just because we are not throwing oil on a burning fire means we are not prepared to take action because that is not the case."