Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Please "bear" with me

I'm still vaguely (?) on vacation, but now back in the motherland (Minnesota) thought I'd share a strange and terribly pathetic bear story in the paper today from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Country star charged with killing tame bear in pen

The incident in Sandstone, Min., was videotaped and edited to make it appear that the bear had been shot in a "fair chase," charges say.
The singing duo Montgomery Gentry made its name in country music with such hits as "Good Clean Fun."But according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday, there was nothing good or clean about the death of a tame bear named Cubby at the hands of Troy Lee Gentry.

Gentry, half of the singing pair, bought the "trophy-caliber" bear for $4,650 from Lee Marvin Greenly, owner of the Minnesota Wildlife Connection in Sandstone, according to the charges filed in federal court in Duluth.

...The charges said Gentry killed the bear with a bow and arrow in October 2004 while it was enclosed in a pen on Greenly's property.

...Cubby had been raised in captivity and was housed at the Wildlife Connection, a private preserve that bills itself as a place where animal lovers can photograph creatures in the wild.

The kill was videotaped and later edited to make it appear that Gentry had killed the bear in a "fair chase" hunting situation, the indictment said. The hide was sent to a taxidermist in Kentucky.

Montgomery Gentry has been a top country act since the late '90s, with two No. 1 singles and a string of gold albums.

SHEESH
-----------------------------------------------------
My sister JUST HAPPENED to send me a clip of a "bouncing bear," so I guess it's cosmically meant to illustrate this post: http://www.komotv.com/qt/bouncing_bear.mpg

1 comment:

The Worsted Witch said...

I'd like to shoot *him* in a pen.