This really chaps my hide. Yet another dumbshit thought he should destroy a brown bear for the sake of his family.
This story takes place in Wasilla, Alaska. Wasilla is a nice large area with tons of houses on huge multi-acre lots scattered throughout the roadways leading to other, more interesting places. Many of these lots are homesteads or parts of original homesteads where squatter rights applied for thousands of Americans in the area. Most homesteaders have what I like to call PHSS or Post-Homesteader Stress Syndrome. PHSS symptoms include, for the most part, forgetting that your property does not need to be violently defended and you are no longer living in a cabin built from your own crap, piss and assorted little sticks. Most people with PHSS deny that governments exist or can effect them, or that laws apply, and - darn tootin - their property is theirs to do with what they want. If it so happens the neighbors are doing something to encroach on your property, block your view, or cause some sort of damage to their own property which in turn negatively effects your quality of life then you have more than enough rights to handle it house to house with insults, weapons, fire, or large ugly posters instead of bringing it up to the city, state, or somebody else who is quite possibly smarter than yourself.
Today the news posted yet another story of a Wasillian who felt it was in his family's best interest to shoot a bear that liked their neck of the woods - no matter what the cost. Hunting seasons are defined for a reason by "Scientists" who study the mating and travel habits of bears and other live game in order to determine appropriate time and quantity of kills to thin out herds and packs and to control over-hunting. This person failed to really involve the government agencies responsible for this bears well being when it first started hanging around his property - instead he shooed it away himself and assumed that would be good enough. Well the bear came back, that's grounds for shooting it.. right? Below is the original story as fed down the wire to us Alaskan folk. ADN is about the only publication that's worth a dime in this state - even if they have a crappy website. I also included a related article printed last month about the same dang problem.
The Story: http://tinyurl.com/2taokh
Other Related Story: http://tinyurl.com/27wr4u
When is it O.K. to shoot a bear? I would like to think when it starts being violent or has kept you trapped in a cabin with no comms for a few days. Only then would I destroy a bear.
Thursday, August 9
Problem Bears are for the State to take care of, not you!!
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Oh Yeah!
Wasilla man fined for shooting bear near his home
By ANDREW WELLNER
awellner@adn.com
Published: August 9, 2007
Last Modified: August 9, 2007 at 12:44 PM
PALMER – The case against a Wasilla man who shot a troublesome bear in his neighborhood ended today.
Robert Pankoski, 38, pleaded no contest to taking a brown bear out of season. A second charge of shooting across a roadway was dismissed in a plea agreement with the District Attorney’s Office.
Pankoski was fined $500. He will forfeit the rifle he used but the state will return his scope.
The bear was in his yard July 7 along Fairview Loop, in an area in which his daughter had been playing, Pankoski’s attorney, Judith Conte told the court. He tried several times to shoo the bear out of the neighborhood, Conte said. She said police dispatchers knew exactly what animal he was talking about when Pankoski called.
Outside court, Pankoski said he didn’t come to court to prove a point. He never wanted to shoot the bear but did what he felt was necessary to protect his family, he said.
“If I broke a law, I broke a law. I’m perfectly willing to accept that,” Pankoski said.
The charge of taking a brown bear out of season was initially a misdemeanor but reduced to a level equivalent to a traffic ticket, Magistrate David Zwink said.
Zwink said the charge was appropriate but told Pankoski that if he runs across another troublemaking bear, he should call the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in addition to the police.
“They can even authorize you over the phone” to take out a problem bear, Zwink said.
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