Troy Gentry Accused of Killing Tame Bear

[catman]

Aug 16, 12:38 PM EST

The Associated Press
DULUTH, Minn. -- Troy Lee Gentry, of the country singing duo Montgomery Gentry (http://music.msn.com/artist/?artist=16407254), has been accused of killing a tame black bear that federal officials say he tagged as killed in the wild.
Gentry, 39, of Franklin, Tenn., and Lee Marvin Greenly, 46, of Sandstone, appeared Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Raymond Erickson in connection with a sealed indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Minneapolis.
Authorities allege that Gentry purchased the bear from Greenly, a wildlife photographer and hunting guide, then killed it with a bow and arrow in an enclosed pen on Greenly's property in October 2004.
The government alleges that Gentry and Greenly tagged the bear with a Minnesota hunting license and registered the animal with the state Department of Natural Resources as a wild kill.
Gentry allegedly paid about $4,650 for the bear, named Cubby. The bear's death was videotaped, and the tape later edited so Gentry appeared to shoot the animal in a "fair chase" hunting situation, the government alleges.
If convicted, both Gentry and Greenly face a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a $20,000 fine.
Gentry's manager, Johnny Dorris, said Wednesday that Gentry, an outdoorsman and hunter, expects to be exonerated.
Gentry "relied on the knowledge and expertise of a local guide to obtain the proper permit," Dorris said in a written statement. "Troy felt what he did was legal and in full compliance of the law and was surprised to hear of the indictment."
Greenly did not return a phone message seeking comment.
Montgomery Gentry, along with co-singer Eddie Montgomery, are known for hits such as "My Town" and "If You Ever Stop Loving Me."

[froglvr76]

why? what is the point?

[LucyLou]

I so hope that this is not true. I love this duo and my view of Troy will be sadly tainted if I find out he had knowledge of and willingly did this. Poor little Cubby.

[Easyrider]

If you or I had killed this bear, it's likely NOTHING would have been said. It's because of their celebrity status that this comes to light.

[dillybar]

What sport is there in killing a penned up animal?

[demopolite]

If you or I had killed this bear, it's likely NOTHING would have been said. It's because of their celebrity status that this comes to light.

Well, I have to admit that I think it's disgusting, and if you had done it and I'd found out about it...I might have it you upside the head with the butt end of your rifle and then dragged you into the sheriff's office to have you arrested, have your hunting license taken away permanently, and then have you pay a hefty fine.

But that's just me. Dad taught me to hate poachers and their ilk.

[Wyldfire]

What sport is there in killing a penned up animal?

There is NONE!!!! This bear was a pet that had been raised since it was a cub...This is disgusting and makes me sick! It is a disgrace for men and women that do this to call themselves hunters. People do this sort of thing all the time....how do you think alot of the "african" game is killed? Alot of the antelope and similar animals are killed in confined areas(sometimes they are quite large). If you have the money, you can kill anything you want!!!

[coach35]

Depends on how big the pen was. I mean You see'em on T.V. everyday hunting on ranches in Texas. Most of which are several thousand acres. All fenced in. The animals can roam but, not off the property. I have seem them where you pick the one you want out of a picture book. Go to where he roams shoot him and put him on the wall. What is the difference.

Troy has been in my brother's store. He is a sportsman. Not a killer. There is more to this story I hope.

[brad]

Bears, whether they are tame or wild, behind a fence or in Alaska roaming wild do not interest me as a game animal. I see these guys on tv who set up a garbage can full of table scraps and then wait on the bear to come up and shoot it. Some people may say that deer or turkey are in the same league but for me bears are something that should be left alone unless a danger to humans. BTW I did hear that in some of the eastern states they had to take a certian number to keep the populations in check. Someone else besides brad will have to do the killing of the bears.

Does anybody know if you eat bear? Is it good? Cause if it were delicious I MIGHT kill one if they ever came into Marengo county. I do like to eat.

[demopolite]

Does anybody know if you eat bear? Is it good? Cause if it were delicious I MIGHT kill one if they ever came into Marengo county. I do like to eat.

The Indians seem to (http://james.hawken.edu/class/grade3/amerin/amerin07.html#61). Now as to whether its good....?????

[BronzeDragoness]

Poor darling bear! Stupid people, I hope they go to jail!

[Roxanne]

The worst thing about this is that the bear was apparently a pet. Pets trust people. To kill an animal in the wild because you are going to eat the meat, I can deal with that. But to kill a trusting animal is totally different.

My dad has killed deer for food before. However, one day a tiny fawn wandered up his driveway. The mother doe was obviously dead or gone. My dad and step-mother raised that deer for close to a year. They fed it from a bottle, petted it, etc. It was very affectionate and trusting. Once the animal got too large to continue to be a pet, they gave it to some people who had lots of "domesticated" wildlife released near their lake. Those animals stay pretty close around the lake and are as safe as could reasonably be expected. My parents did not raise the baby deer, love it, get it to trust them, and then shoot it before it became a buck. They did the right thing.

I just don't understand how anyone could kill a pet for "sport."

[mmcd3182]

What sport is there in killing a penned up animal?

YEP! 5 years in prison I hope... that's a horrible thing to do to another animal.

[RalphRalph]

Does anybody know if you eat bear? Is it good? Cause if it were delicious I MIGHT kill one if they ever came into Marengo county. I do like to eat.

My mom made the best pot of beef stew when I was young and after I had my second helping they told me it was bear meat. It is very greasy meat but obviously not bad since I had seconds.

[Chipper]

Thu, Aug. 17, 2006
Bear wasn't 'penned' for hunt, singer argues
Attorney disputes indictment, says Gentry believed killing bear was legal
BY DAVID HAWLEY
Pioneer Press

Country vocalist Troy Lee Gentry bagged a Minnesota black bear in 2004, but his lawyer said Wednesday that federal prosecutors are trying to kill his client's reputation before he goes to trial.

"A lot of people are making jokes of this, but for him it is no joke," said Minneapolis lawyer Ron Meshbesher.

Meshbesher said a federal indictment accusing Gentry of killing the bear that was "enclosed in a pen" was misleading.

"Number 1, the bear was not killed in a cage," Meshbesher said. "The bear was roaming around in a fenced area of several acres, and my client spent almost two hours in a tree stand before he got a clear shot with a bow and arrow."

On Tuesday, federal authorities unsealed an indictment charging Gentry and the owner of a Sandstone, Minn., wildlife refuge with shooting a tame black bear with a bow and arrow and then tagging it as if it had been killed in the wild.

The indictment also said Gentry and Minnesota Wildlife Connection owner Lee Marvin Greenly cooked up a fake videotape that depicted the killing of the captive-raised animal as a "fair chase" hunting situation.

Gentry, 39, performs with the duo Montgomery Gentry. He "is extremely distraught about these allegations," Meshbesher said Wednesday. "He prides himself as an environmentalist and an avid hunter who respects the fish and game laws of the United States."

An acre is roughly the size of a football field without the end zones.

A videotape depicting Gentry hunting the bear in October 2004 was made for Gentry's private use, Meshbesher said, adding that any editing was done to remove the "dead time" spent waiting in the tree stand. In all, the length of the tape was cut from more than an hour to 15 minutes, he said.

"They never edited the videotape to make it look like something it wasn't," Meshbesher said. "Nothing was done to hide the fact that this (hunt) occurred the way it occurred."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis said federal authorities would not comment on Meshbesher's assertions.

Word of the death of Cubby, a huge black bear, saddened wildlife photographers who have paid fees over the years to take "controlled" photographs of wild animals at Greenly's 80-acre Minnesota Wildlife Connection on the Kettle River near Sandstone. The practice is controversial among professional outdoor photographers though generally considered legitimate if captions acknowledge how the pictures were obtained.

"Everybody loved Cubby," said Rick Hobbs, a Colorado photographer who paid for photo sessions at the refuge for five or six years in the 1990s.

"He was a huge bear, maybe 600 pounds, which is twice the size of a normal black bear you'd find in the wild," Hobbs said. "He was just a big lumbering guy, which is probably why everybody loved him."

Middleton Evans, a Baltimore wildlife photographer, said he photographed Cubby many times.

"It's sad to hear that he's gone," Evans said.

Hobbs and Evans said they haven't shot photos at Greenly's refuge in several years.

Greenly, 46, also was indicted on a number of charges unrelated to the hunt with Gentry. His attorney, Robert Malone of St. Paul, said his client is pleading not guilty to all the charges.

The indictment said Greenly sold the bear to Gentry for $4,650. The death of the "trophy-caliber" bear was videotaped and Gentry's Minnesota hunting license was used when the animal was registered with the state Department of Natural Resources as if it had been killed from a wild population, the indictment charged.

The hide was then shipped to a Kentucky taxidermist and was later delivered to Gentry's home in Nashville, Tenn., the indictment said.

According to federal officials, the tagging violated state game laws and the interstate transportation of the carcass invoked provisions of the century-old federal Lacey Act, which covers the treatment of wildlife in the United States.

Meshbesher and Gentry's Nashville manager, Johnny Dorris, said Gentry thought everything he was doing was legal.

"He relied on the knowledge and expertise of the local guide to obtain the proper permit," Dorris said in a prepared statement. "Troy felt what he did was legal and in full compliance of the law and was surprised to hear of the indictment."

Gentry and Greenly appeared Tuesday before a federal magistrate judge in Duluth and were released without bail. A trial is tentatively scheduled to begin in November before U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, though it has not been determined whether the case will be tried in Duluth or in the Twin Cities.

The indictment also charged Greenly with taking bear hunters into the Sandstone National Wildlife Refuge near his property, where authorities said they illegally killed two bears in late August and early September 2005. Gentry is not named in those charges.

[Lacie]

I'm surprised that this happened in October 2004 & is just now making the news....

[Daddy'sBabyGirl]

I DO NOT agree with what he did, but what is tame about a bear?

[LGKEY]

My mom made the best pot of beef stew when I was young and after I had my second helping they told me it was bear meat. It is very greasy meat but obviously not bad since I had seconds.


Where did your Mom get bear meat?