I’ve never understood people that go hunting. Its origins lie in our need as humans to survive and how we would hunt only the food we needed to eat each day.
Now hunting is considered a sport and many argue is necessary to keep the population of certain species to manageable numbers.
But I can think of no excuse for shooting a mama bear while she hibernates in a cave with her two cubs.
This is what happened in Alaska and the two responsible did not get away with it. Authorities described it as a crime of an “egregious nature,” according to the Daily Mail.
According to an article in the Daily Mail Andrew Renner, 41, was recently sentenced to three months in jail for killing a mother bear and two cubs while hunting in Alaska with his 18-year-old son Owen Renner.
Owen Renner, who was 17 at the time, received a 30-day suspension for being involved in the act with his father.
Hibernating mother bear
The family of bears were being tracked by wildlife officials on Esther Island in Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska and so their killings were caught on a research camera.
According to the article the father and son skied down into the bear’s den and shot the hibernating mother bear in front of her screaming newborn cubs. The cubs were then shot.
Assistant attorney general Aaron Peterson said, “My office believes and argued for active jail time in this case because of the egregious nature of it, and the necessity of letting the public know Alaska will not tolerate poaching.”
In addition to jail time Andrew was ordered to pay a $9,000 fine, forfeit his pickup truck, boat, trailer, weapons, skies and cell phones and had his hunting license revoked for 10 years.
His son Owen had his hunting license suspended for two years and he was ordered to take a hunters’ safety course.
Authorities said it was the teenager who shot the mama bear and after hearing the shrieks coming from the cubs the dad then shot the two defenseless cubs, according to the article.
Mr Peterson said that it was “most egregious bear cub poaching case his office has ever seen”.
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These two should be held up as an example of the heinous act of hunting and killing defenseless animals that have a right to live free in the wild.
Tough sentences should always be imposed on those caught committing such crimes. Please share if you agree.
