Posted on 07/27/2006 3:46:16 PM PDT by Coleus
It's quiet at this Elliston home until a bear shows up. "He had done destroyed the trash, strung it all over the place," said Paul Perkins. It claws trash cans and leaves it's prints on a grill. Paul calls State Police and animal control, then the game warden. "The game warden is the only man who can handle this problem. That's what everybody tells me," he said.
He says he never got a call back and the bear kept coming back. Paul's neighbor gave him some rubber buck shot game wardens said would deter the bear. "The buck shot hit him straight in the chest. At five to six feet away, knocked him over backwards." The bear took off but not for long. The rubber ammunition did not deter it. The bear came back more mad and headed right for Paul.
"He can see me standing on the porch and he's coming to my porch. To me he's a threat. How far do I got to where I draw the line," He asks. With a real shot in his gun the next time, Paul shot and killed the bear then called to report it. Thirty minutes later, he says the game warden showed up. "He bragged about how quick he responded," said Paul. "I said then how come it took you four days to get back in touch with me"?
The warden charged Paul with unlawfully killing a bear. The law says he can only kill a bear off season if it's hurting or attempting to hurt a person. "I done everything I could possibly do to stay within the law. The law is not working with me." Paul now has to go to court to fight the charges.
"bears repeating"
Your bad, but, funny
A similar situation happened in Michigan recently that was less clear than this one and the guy was exonerated.
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