Bear Poachers caught in Alaska

[beginnerhunter]

Sorry if this was already posted:

Video of Alaska father and son illegally killing bear, shrieking cubs made public

In April of 2018, Alaskan hunters Andrew Renner, 41, of Wasilla, and Owen Renner, 18, also of Wasilla, illegally killed a black bear and her cubs on Esther Island in Prince William Sound. The video of that incident has been released.

www.ktuu.com

Damage to image of hunting and hunters orders of magnitude worse than penalty they received.

 

[MThuntr]

yeah that's pretty damn disgusting!

 

[noharleyyet]

Wish they wouldn't call them hunters..

 

[mtmiller]

Makes me very angry.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Hold my beer and watch this son...... what a couple pieces of shit. Then the way it's put in the media doesn't help.... calling those guys hunters is like saying the Clinton's are a honest hard working American family.

 

[beginnerhunter]

I mean, checks all the boxes:
1) cute and furry vs poached deer
2) young cubs killed and left to rot
3) shot out of season
4) idiots bragged about it

Should be illegal to call a poacher a "hunter".

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Just a travesty. It is really unfortunate, but I found out about this when my wife read it on a main stream media news app. This is the only data point the majority of the public will have of hunters this week, and it is about as bad as it gets.....

 

[elkantlers]

I will defend hunters and hunting all day everyday. However, This is not hunting and they are not hunters. They are poachers plain and simple. They deserve any punishment they may get and then some.

The problem is there are many people that don't see the difference in these pieces of trash and law abiding hunters trying to put meat in the freezer.

 

[Rzrbck918]

Hate the broad brush we get painted with but these guys are particularly disgusting.

 

[NoWiser]

What bothers me is that I find myself thinking that we'd all be better off if they'd have never been caught. That video will be used against hunters for a long time, even though those two are obviously not hunters and what they are doing is far from hunting.

 

[MTelkHuntress]

That's absolutely horrible. I'm not so sure they sure ever have hunting licenses again.

 

[beginnerhunter]

Why do they even get to have a hunting license after 2 and 10 years???? I guess they would poach regardless but still.
That's absolutely horrible.

EXACTLY. For something that egregious they should be banned for life. The fines are a joke as well. Maybe we should be pushing state wildlife agencies for more significant penalties.

 

[ida homer]

What's tough is that it's a no win situation.

Fine them $100,000. Great, they'll pay $15/month on it for the rest of their life and never pay it off.

Take their hunting licenses for 25 years? No problem, they're already willing to hunt without a license out of season.

Jail time? Probably cleaner than their "house."

I'm glad they confiscated his boat, the truck, guns, skiis, etc. The next best thing would be to tack on 10,000 hours of community service. There's no getting out of that.

 

[theat]

That is pretty sickening to see, and even worse to think about all the non hunters being exposed to that video all over the internet right now. I in no way condone their actions, and think that they should have lost their hunting rights for life, but most people don't realize that kind of "hunting" has been and is legal in certain parts of Alaska. The ADF&G does pretty good job of keeping quiet about their methods of predator control.

One of the most disturbing wildlife related videos/pictures that I have ever seen were taken during one of Alaskas Intensive Predator Control Programs. A couple of pilots I know were involved and told me how disgusted they were with the whole thing. They spent a couple weeks flying the control zone with helicopters and super cubs in the spring. Every bear that they found was shot with a shotgun out of the helicopters. This included all sows and cubs. Often, when a sow was shot, the cubs would hide in the brush. The sow was skinned and the hide draped over a log or rock. Later that day they would fly back and often the cubs would be snuggled up in their dead mothers fur. One of the videos I saw was of two of those cubs being killed while trying to claw back under their dead mother. Seems kind of hypocritical for ADF&G to do those kinds of things, then make a big deal about these two morons.


A couple of quotes I found with quick search online.

"Next, the board legalized using artificial lights to rouse hibernating black bears from their dens so that hunters could shoot them as they emerged. Native elders in interior Alaska had asked for the right to use the practice ritually, as their ancestors had before firearms made it easier to challenge bears in the open. But because state law forbids discriminating between hunters, the board opened the practice to everyone – and tried to extend it into parts of Gates of the Arctic and Denali national preserves."

Alaska’s wildlife war - High Country News

The federal government pushes back as the state ramps up predator control.

www.hcn.org

"At that same March meeting, BOG amended the predator control implementation plan in Game Management Unit 16B (Upper Cook Inlet) to include a black bear control compo- nent. Bear predation on young moose calves was claimed to
be limiting growth of the moose population in this area. The Unit 16B black bear population was estimated by extrapolat- ing densities obtained in nearby aerial censuses in spring 2003. The extrapolations were variously presented by ADF&G as 1,376 to 1,574 bears in May 2006, 1,183 to 2,402 bears
in March 2007, and 1,500 to 2,000 bears in the final plan approved by the BOG. The plan’s objective was to reduce
the bear population to 600. This would involve taking up to 1,400 black bears from the area. Under the terms of a predator control permit, hunters could take any bear, including cubs and sows with cubs, all with no bag limit. Bear-baiting restric- tions were eased, hunters could take bears the same day they were airborne and the sale of hides was allowed."

 

[mtmuley]

Thanks for the information theat. That killing of the cubs was tough to read. Were Alaskan officials doing the shooting? The term hunter has no place in any of that. mtmuley

 

[dirtclod Az.]

These guys are thieves and thieves go to prison!!

 

[theat]

Thanks for the information theat. That killing of the cubs was tough to read. Were Alaskan officials doing the shooting? The term hunter has no place in any of that. mtmuley

Aircraft and pilots were contract, but the gunners were state.

 

[blueridge]

Weird that the full article never says "hunter". It says "Alaskan father and son " whereas the link preview above says "Alaskan hunters". ??

 

[Nick87]

Disgusting

Suspend there hunting privileges that will teach them.

 

[beginnerhunter]

Weird that the full article never says "hunter". It says "Alaskan father and son " whereas the link preview above says "Alaskan hunters". ??

I wonder if it was edited after I posted the link... idk