As unusual as it may have appeared, there was nothing illegal about how hunters chose to handle their moose after shooting it recently, says a senior enforcement official.

Kris Gustafson is the director of conservation officer services with Environment Yukon.

He told the Star this week he understands completely how there must have been concerns when people in Mayo saw two halves of a moose in a freighter canoe.

None of the hide had been removed, and the quarters hadn’t been cut away.

The front half still had the head on, with the tongue hanging out, and the antlers were still attached.

The scene prompted Chief Simon Mervyn of the First Nation of Na-cho Nyak Dun to issue a statement regarding how the Northern Tutchone were disappointed with the lack of respect hunters were demonstrating in their traditional territory.

They were concerned about how “improper treatment of the meat could lead to the waste of an important food source for the Nacho Nyak Dun.”

They also noted the large increase of hunters in their area, and how their use of use of off-road vehicles for hunting was impacting wildlife, and how they feel the pressure is not sustainable, said the chief’s letter, published in last Monday’s Star.

Gustafson said Environment Yukon certainly heard from many in the community at large who alerted the department to the photo on Facebook of the moose in the freighter canoe.

Conservation officers did contact the Yukon hunters and were assured there was no spoilage of meat, he said, adding the moose had been gutted at the kill site.

Gustafson said Environment Yukon encourages and teaches the more traditional method of handling a moose after it’s killed, the cool, clean, dry method.

That is to gut it, skin it and butcher it at the site, and keep the meat dry, which is typical of how most hunters do it, he explained.

Gustafson said leaving the hide on does keep the meat clean, and it’s a method used regularly by caribou hunters on the Dempster Highway.

It’s common practice to gut the caribou at the kill site, then drag the entire carcass to the highway to either skin and butcher it there or take it somewhere else to do it, he said.

Down south in deer country, Gustafson said, it’s also common for hunters to gut the animal and transport it somewhere else to skin it and butcher it.

But he does see how the optics of seeing a whole moose in the canoe with the hide, head and legs still intact could be challenging for people.

“The whole respect component is such a critical component of hunting, so I totally understand how people would say this is disrespectful and how it would not resonate with hunters who do not typically do that,” Gustafson said.