Two men charged for tampering with deer traps in Kimberley earlier this year had brief court appearances in Cranbrook on Tuesday, May 20.

Neither Devin Kazakoff nor Lucky Sikora were personally in court on Tuesday for their first appearance on charges of mischief and disguising the face to commit an offence.

Legal counsel represented each man, and the cases were put over until June 16.

Kazakoff, a founder of the Invermere Deer Protection Society, and Sikora were arrested in February after RCMP allege they were involved in an incident in Kimberley where deer traps were damaged.

Police said that two men were arrested early on Feb. 27 in Kimberley after they were observed damaging a clover trap and fleeing the scene on foot and then in a vehicle.

Police tracked the vehicle to a side road south of Kimberley and took the two men into custody.

A police dog found netting from traps nearby, and a search of the vehicle found items police believe were used to tamper with the traps. Four traps in total were damaged.

The City of Kimberley called off its cull after the traps, owned by the B.C. government, were taken out of commission. The incident came a few weeks after 10 clover traps were stolen from a government compound in Cranbrook. Police found seven of the traps in bush nearby but six had been destroyed in a fire.