The last defendant in a case involving a big game outfitter with a Utah license and his employee/cougar hunting guide was sentenced by a U.S. District Court judge in the District of Utah. Separate sentencing proceedings were held for the two defendants on charges related to a crime that violated the Lacey Act and cheated hunters out of their money by conducting canned hunts.
The court sentenced Wade Lemon, 63, of Holden, Utah, to two months in jail, fined him $10,000, and banned him from using federal property for commercial purposes for one year on July 18, 2024.
Lemon admitted in his plea negotiating statement and court documents that he went on illegal “canned” mountain lion hunts on January 24, 2021, and December 15, 2020, on Federal Bureau of Land Management and National Forest Service property.
“Canned hunts” of mountain lions are illegal in Utah. For a canned hunt, a cougar is either cornered, treed, or otherwise rendered unable to escape so that an individual who was not originally part of the hunting team may come along and capture it. Wildlife that has been illegally stolen or sold is not allowed to be sold in interstate commerce according to the federal Lacey Act. Services such as guiding and outfitting are included in the definition of “sale” of wildlife under the Lacey Act.
Wade Lemon Hunting, based in Holden, Utah, is owned and run by Lemon. Lemon’s online advertising has an annual success record of around 100%. But Lemon has lied to and conned hunters into illicit canned cougar hunts.
In 2024, after pleading guilty to his role in an illicit canned cougar hunt with Lemon, 47-year-old Kacey Alan Yardley of Enoch, Utah, was given a six-month bench probationary sentence. Yardley is unable to conduct business on government property while he is on probation. Yardley was Lemon’s houndsman and cougar hunting guide, according to court records and his own words during his plea bargain hearing. On the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property, Yardley confessed on December 15, 2020, that a cougar was restrained during a canned hunt so that another hunter who wasn’t part of the original party could try to catch it.
