Idaho boy, 11, shoots black bear on family's porch - bear's next of kin demand justice
Nov 16 2009 by The Editor
DRIGGS, Idaho— An 11 year-old boy shot a black bear on his family's front porch after he said it wouldn't leave. The bear, which was underweight and hungry had only dropped by looking for table scraps or anything to eat. It had no intention to harm anyone in the house and rang the doorbell politely. The boy was at his home near Driggs, just west of the Idaho-Wyoming border, with his younger sisters last Wednesday when the bear showed up. The youngster said he couldn't shoo it away, so he went and got his gun and shot it. The boy apparently made no effort to reason with the bear and ask it to return later when his parents were at home. He just shot it, boom.
Later that same evening, a gang of about 20 black bears circled the house, apparently in search of their fallen comrade. After a couple of hours the bears disappeared, as quickly as they had arrived, but left an ominous message pinned to a porch post. The scrawled note said simply: "Watch your asses, bear killers."
Black bears in the area have prompted multiple complaint calls, largely because they've been hanging around a transfer station, hoping to be transferred to Yellowstone where there is ample food, and slothful tourists trash enough food to keep 100 bears alive for the winter.
It wasn't clear if the bear shot by the boy was also attracted by the transfer station, and it was impossible to obtain an exit interview with one of the bear counselors, who were all occupied counseling grieving bears.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game Officer Lauren Wendt said, "we got multiple complaint calls. We don't like to see them down this low. But it's not uncommon.
Fish and Game also doesn't plan to pursue any claims against the boy or his family _ and issued them a permit to keep the bear carcass. This angered many local residents who felt the bear carcass should be awarded based on a lottery. A few nature lovers and PETA members thought the boy should be tried and convicted for bear-slaughter and sent to the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth for anywhere from 5 to 30 years.
Local prosecutors declined to be interviewed for this story on grounds it might cause more work for them, filling out forms, preparing for an appearance before a Grand Jury to obtain an indictment of the boy, conducting a trial instead of fishing, and scheduling psycological examinations for the other members of the black bear's extended family. "We'd prefer to just forget about it, frankly," said a prosecutor who asked not to be identified because he probably would be fired for derilection of duty. Tough luck, Hank Moody.
An unidentified naturalist called to inform BizarreStuff staff that the bear in the photo is not a black bear but a Grizzly, and the boy in the photo is not 11 years old. After re-examining the photo, we agree. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and confess that these different facts render this story completely implausible. Rather than retract it we decided to leave it as is. Who really cares?
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Information from: Standard Journal, http://www.rexburgstandardjournal.com/
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