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BIGGS JUNCTION, Ore. — Two men were arrested after illegally shooting and beheading two bighorn sheep in Oregon Sunday, police said.
A man called dispatch at about 9:45 a.m. to report seeing someone along I-84 near Biggs Junction leaning over what looked like a big game animal while gutting or field dressing it, according to Oregon State Police Lt. Bill Fugate.
He said police found 32-year-old Layton resident Justin M. Samora in a vehicle nearby and while they were questioning him, motorists stopped to let investigators know a second man was hiding in the brush.
“Our troopers went to that area to look for this male hiding in the brush and that’s when they found two severed bighorn sheep heads,” Fugate said.
It took hours to locate the second man, 37-year-old Cody J. Plagmann of Albany, Oregon, walking near railroad tracks about 2 miles away, according to Fugate. He said investigators determined Samora and Plagmann were working together to shoot and decapitate the bighorn sheep.
“According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to even get a tag to hunt bighorn sheep,” he said. “(Our) best guess is that they cut the heads off in an attempt to have a trophy and left the game animals to waste.”
Plagmann was arrested on suspicion of taking a bighorn sheep, wasting of a game animal and hunting on another’s cultivated or enclosed land. Samora was arrested on suspicion of aiding in a game violation. Both men were booked into the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility.
Under Oregon law, the unlawful taking of a bighorn sheep can carry up to $25,000 in civil restitution, according to Fugate. Bighorn sheep were reintroduced to Oregon in 1954 after being wiped out in the 1940s, the East Oregonian reported.
"It's an outrage that someone would poach a bighorn sheep when hunters can wait their whole life and still never get the opportunity to hunt this iconic species," OSP district wildlife biologist Jeremy Thompson said in a statement. "This herd is also a popular viewing attraction for people driving along I-84 and has been there since 1993."
Contributing: Brianna Bodily
