Man Who Killed Bear and Her Cubs With His Son Sentenced to Three Months in Jail

By Chelsea Ritschel, The Independent

26 January 19

He could be heard telling his son: 'It doesn't matter. Bear down'

man has been sentenced to three months in jail after he and his son were caught on camera killing a mother bear and her two cubs.

Andrew Renner, 41, and his 18-year-old son Owen killed the animals after skiing to the inhabited bear den on Esther Island in the Gulf of Alaska - unaware that the animals were being recorded as part of a wildlife observation program conducted by the US Forest Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The Renners were sentenced Tuesday for the April incident, after pleading guilty to multiple counts, including illegal killing of the bears, KTLA reports.

Owen received 30 days of suspended time for his involvement in the incident, and both received fines.

According to a statement released by the Alaska Department of Public Safety in April, the father and son skied up to the den on April 14, at which point the motion-detection camera captured the 18-year-old shoot the mother bear.

His father was then recorded shooting the “shrieking” newborn bear cubs and dragging the bodies away from the den.

Court documents reveal Andrew was caught on camera saying: “It doesn’t matter. Bear down.”

The camera then captured the pair returning to the den two days later to pick up the shells and dispose of the bear cubs.

On April 30, Andrew brought the adult bear’s skin and tracking collar to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, telling officials that he killed the bear near Granite Bay in Prince William Sound and noticed it was a nursing mother after - but that he did not see any cubs nearby.

The father and son were charged with unlawfully taking a female bear with cubs, unlawfully taking a bear cub, and possessing and transporting illegally taken game.

Andrew Renner was also charged with tampering with physical evidence, and falsifying a document indicating that he killed the mother bear, not his son, according to Anchorage Daily News, and has had his hunting license revoked for 10 years.

Assistant Attorney General Aaron Peterson said the case was the “most egregious bear cub poaching case his office has ever seen.”

In Alaska, it is legal for those with a registered permit to kill bears during hunting seasons in spring and fall but it is illegal to kill bear cubs and females with offspring.