Music star Troy Lee Gentry is charged with killing a tame black bear at close range, then violating the law to pretend that it had been hunted in the wild.
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Country music star Troy Lee Gentry has been indicted on charges that he killed a tame black bear caged in a pen, and then illegally tagged the bear as having been killed in the wild.
The indictment alleges that in October 2004 Gentry, of the country music group Montgomery Gentry, paid $4,650 to buy a tame black bear named “Cubby” from Lee Marvin Greenly, proprietor of the Minnesota Wildlife Connection in Sandstone, Minnesota. Gentry then allegedly killed the bear, who was raised in captivity and had been used to pose for wildlife photographs, with a bow and arrow while the bear was enclosed in a pen on Greenly’s property.
After killing the tame bear, Gentry allegedly tagged him with a Minnesota hunting license, and registered the kill with the state, pretending that it had been hunted in the wild. Gentry reportedly taped the slaughter of the bear, and then later edited the videotape so it appeared as if the bear was killed in a “fair chase” hunting situation.
“The defendants went to great lengths to disguise a ‘canned hunt.’ At typical canned hunt ranges, trophy collectors pay for the thrill of killing staked, hobbled, caged or fenced animals who are familiar with human contact. It is unlikely that Cubby viewed Gentry as a predator. As his killer approached, Cubby probably leaned toward him in anticipation of food,” wrote Brenda Shoss, president of Kinship Circle, in a sample letter to authorities.
Following an intensive investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gentry and Greenly were indicted by federal prosecutors for conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to traffic in wildlife, fish and plans that are illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold. If convicted of the charges, the men could face a maximum of five years in federal prison and $20,000 in fine for placing the fraudulent tags on the bear.
Greenly also faces additional charges that he violated the Lacey Act in his work as a commercial bear hunting guide. The indictment alleges that he took hunting clients into the Sandstone National Wildlife Refuge, where it is illegal to hunt black bear, and that he had illegally established multiple bear-baiting stations and hunting stands in the refuge. According to the indictment, Greenly took two clients into the refuge in the fall of 2005, where one of them illegally killed two black bear.
While applauding the initiative taken by federal prosecutors in pursing the case, however, animal welfare groups are calling for further action to be taken against Gentry and Greenly.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is calling for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to revoke the federal and state licenses held by Greenly, and for the local district attorney to investigate whether animal cruelty charges can be filed against Gentry.
HSUS points out that Greenly’s website, www.minnesotawildlifeconnection.com, claims the facility is “Humane Society Approved.”
“No legitimate humane society would condone a facility that treats animals in such a gruesome manner,” said Heidi Prescott, senior vice president of campaigns for HSUS. “The killing of a tame bear by bow and arrow inside a fenced pen is about as sporting as shooting a puppy in the window of a pet store. Traditional hunters would agree that such an act would have little resemblance to hunting, but rather was like shooting fish in a barrel, and capturing it all on tape for entertainment.”
For more on the campaign to outlaw “canned hunts,” please click here.
Contact Montgomery Gentry’s record label, Sony Music USA, and tell them they should be ashamed to represent a singer who would commit such a cowardly act. Even in the world of hunting, there is nothing respectable about shooting a tame bear in a pen, and nothing “tough” about pretending to the world that the bear was shot in a hunt in the wild. [/b] Sony Music USA [/b]
Web email. Sony Phone Numbers.