Some days you get the bear...
Man Faces 2 Years in Prison for Shooting Grizzly While Defending Family
COEUR d'ALENE - A man charged with unlawfully shooting and killing a grizzly bear had so many supporters at his arraignment Tuesday in federal court that the judge had to move the hearing to a larger courtroom.
Even there, every seat was taken as his family, friends and neighbors, young and old, squeezed in.
Jeremy M. Hill, 33, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to killing the animal with a rifle on his 20-acre property near Porthill, Idaho, at the Canadian border. He lives five miles from the closest grizzly bear recovery zone.
The grizzly bear is classified as a threatened species in the lower 48 states, according to the Endangered Species Act, and protected by federal law. Hill's charge is a misdemeanor.
Magistrate Judge Candy Dale set trial, at least for now, for Oct. 4.
Hill has declined comment. His lawyer, Marc Lyons of Coeur d'Alene, said he plans to defend Hill on the basis of self-defense and protection of family.
Following the hearing, his father, Mike Hill, of Athol, said, "This whole thing is a waste of taxpayer money."
He said his son was concerned for the safety of his children playing outside when a mother grizzly and two cubs wandered onto his property on May 8.
Jeremy Hill has six kids, ranging in age from 14 years old to 10 months old. At least five were home when the grizzly was killed, Mike Hill said.
The bears had gone after some pigs in a pen that the kids had been raising, Mike Hill said.
He said his son shot one of the bears, then called authorities to notify them of the kill. The other two bears ran off.
He said his son could have just buried the animal and not said anything to law enforcement. He said his son is being penalized for coming forward.
State Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, attended the hearing in full support of Jeremy Hill.
"The charges are simply unjust," she said following the hearing. "Hopefully common sense will prevail. It's clearly an issue of protecting the family."
She predicted that punishing someone who reported killing a grizzly will damage government efforts to protect the animals.
She said nearly $20,000 was raised by community members for Hill's defense.
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho was asked about the case while appearing in Sandpoint on Tuesday.
While Labrador said he needed to be careful in dealing with the prosecutorial side of things, he did have this to say:
"Clearly, we have a problem with the ESA when situations like this happen." He later added, "We're doing everything we can to make sure this man is treated fairly."
The Boundary County commissioners on Monday said they are standing beside Hill on the charge, saying in a statement that Hill had "not only the right, but the obligation to protect his children and his family."
The commissioners said they'll be seeking help from Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and Idaho's congressional delegation to get the charge dismissed.
The charge of killing a threatened species is punishable by up to a year in prison, a maximum fine of $50,000, and up to one year of supervised release. (H/T to The Blaze)
COEUR d'ALENE - A man charged with unlawfully shooting and killing a grizzly bear had so many supporters at his arraignment Tuesday in federal court that the judge had to move the hearing to a larger courtroom.
Even there, every seat was taken as his family, friends and neighbors, young and old, squeezed in.
Jeremy M. Hill, 33, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to killing the animal with a rifle on his 20-acre property near Porthill, Idaho, at the Canadian border. He lives five miles from the closest grizzly bear recovery zone.
The grizzly bear is classified as a threatened species in the lower 48 states, according to the Endangered Species Act, and protected by federal law. Hill's charge is a misdemeanor.
Magistrate Judge Candy Dale set trial, at least for now, for Oct. 4.
Hill has declined comment. His lawyer, Marc Lyons of Coeur d'Alene, said he plans to defend Hill on the basis of self-defense and protection of family.
Following the hearing, his father, Mike Hill, of Athol, said, "This whole thing is a waste of taxpayer money."
He said his son was concerned for the safety of his children playing outside when a mother grizzly and two cubs wandered onto his property on May 8.
Jeremy Hill has six kids, ranging in age from 14 years old to 10 months old. At least five were home when the grizzly was killed, Mike Hill said.
The bears had gone after some pigs in a pen that the kids had been raising, Mike Hill said.
He said his son shot one of the bears, then called authorities to notify them of the kill. The other two bears ran off.
He said his son could have just buried the animal and not said anything to law enforcement. He said his son is being penalized for coming forward.
State Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, attended the hearing in full support of Jeremy Hill.
"The charges are simply unjust," she said following the hearing. "Hopefully common sense will prevail. It's clearly an issue of protecting the family."
She predicted that punishing someone who reported killing a grizzly will damage government efforts to protect the animals.
She said nearly $20,000 was raised by community members for Hill's defense.
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho was asked about the case while appearing in Sandpoint on Tuesday.
While Labrador said he needed to be careful in dealing with the prosecutorial side of things, he did have this to say:
"Clearly, we have a problem with the ESA when situations like this happen." He later added, "We're doing everything we can to make sure this man is treated fairly."
The Boundary County commissioners on Monday said they are standing beside Hill on the charge, saying in a statement that Hill had "not only the right, but the obligation to protect his children and his family."
The commissioners said they'll be seeking help from Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and Idaho's congressional delegation to get the charge dismissed.
The charge of killing a threatened species is punishable by up to a year in prison, a maximum fine of $50,000, and up to one year of supervised release. (H/T to The Blaze)
(End of story, my comments follow.)
Would the story be different if the guy was Native American? Just wondering.
My wife was of the "Aw c'mon, a momma bear isn't the most peaceful creature on earth." mindset. I reminded her of a story I read some years ago about a government sanctioned buffalo hunt that was disrupted by animal lovers on AT vehicles. One of the dingbats was quoted as saying he' d gladly lay down his life to protect an animal. That was back in the '90's, by now that idiot has probably sired numerous kids. Depressing thought.
In a nation where the cops routinely shut down neighborhood lemonade stands because the seven year old operators don't have a vendors permit, nothing in the way of common sense can be taken for granted.
I hope the guy in this story wins the case. Next time, he should just skin & butcher the bear and feed the remains to the pigs. I'm told it's what the Mafia does with their victims up north, seems it would work for bears too.
And bear stew is mighty tasty, or so I've heard.
6 comments:
This is an outrage! While we should protect endangered species, the protection of human life should be our first piority. A dangerous animal must not be allowed to come into contact with humans under circumstances that favour it. The animal must be in an area were it has very little contact with man, in an enclosure, like at a zoo, driven away, or shot if it is going to attack people or property.
The so-called 'animal rights activists' have no understanding of wild animals. Some of these idiots think animals have rights equal to human beings. The truth of the matter is animals, domestic and wild, are subject to man. It's been that way since creation. We have to set the boundaries of animal/man relationships. if we don't, too many animals in an area will upset the population balance, and/or will bring people into too close contact with animals that can and will result in injury and death for either party. The lady who got mauled by the chimp and the fool who was killed and eaten by the grizzly bear shows bigtime what can happen to folks who ignore the real nature of a wild animal.
If we could process BS like this, we could fertilize every piece of exhausted soil in Iraq!
"One of the dingbats was quoted as saying he'd gladly lay down his life to protect an animal. That was back in the '90's, by now that idiot has probably sired numerous kids. Depressing thought."
Cheer up ... that particular dingbat probably was for abortion, contraception and gay sex. That kind of stupidity tends to lend itself to activities that win Darwin Awards. The gene pool really is self-cleansing.
Scotju, those "animal rights activists" seem to be nothing more than examples of arrested development. Unfortunately they're treated as normal, sane adults.
IR, yep. That'd be a lot of fertilizer. But the idiots who produce this seem up to the task, they never stop.
Anthony Layne, we can only hope.
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