Well the whole dang country is in an uproar over a viral video that shows an Alaska man named Andrew Renner and his son, Owen, dispatching a hibernating bear and her two shrieking, panicky cubs and then high-fiving each other in celebration.
The video was shot in April 2018 of the Wasilla father (then 41) and son (18) because the bears were part of a study set up by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Forest Service, which had the bear den under video surveillance.
The men weren’t aware that their daring exploit was being caught on film. “They’ll never be able to link it to us” they can be heard to say on the video, and “We go where we want to kill shit.”
But an oppressive state government had other ideas, and charged the men for poaching, as if it didn’t take the heart of a lion and reflexes of a cat to face down a hibernating bear and her babies in their den.
The Renners had the book thrown at them: “In a release issued by the Department of Law, Andrew Renner was sentenced to five months in jail with two months suspended, pay a fine of $20,000 with $11,000 suspended, forfeit his 22’ Sea Sport ocean boat and trailer, 2012 GMC Sierra pickup truck, two rifles, two handguns, two iPhones, and two sets of backcountry skis which were used in the offenses. His hunting license was revoked for 10 years. Owen Renner was sentenced to suspended jail time, community works service and required to take a hunters safety course. His hunting license was suspended for two years.”
The bears had no comment.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 29, 2019 at 21:00
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Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He’s written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology’s harassment of Paulette Cooper titled ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,’ and more recently a compilation of his stories, ‘Battlefield Scientology.’ He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world, as well as other subjects at The Underground Bunker. You can reach him by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you’d like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.)
