The PA Game commission reports an 879 lb bear was taken with a bow. Local residents that were apparently feeding the bear were not happy. Welcome to PA

Apparently the poor bear was shot with nine arrows and bolts from three hunters armed with bows and crossbows. He had been captured before for some misdeed and had a lip tattoo.

Where in PA did this take place? Got a news link?

Will they have it mounted standing in an aggressive position with it's teeth glaring.....or sitting beside a 12-year old kid feeding it a loaf of bread?

It was in Pike county, near NJ. I don't know about mount. A local bar has one of those ferocious looking, standing, snarling bear mounts. Drunks stole all the claws though so he looks like he's panhandling or begging for mercy.

link to story. A bit of searching about this bear has found some very troubling information, but you never know on the net. PA Game Wardens have ruled it a legal kill.

http://www.poconorecord.com/ap...101119/NEWS/11190341

That's some top notch reporting there. I can't wait to see a bear skull that's 23 inches wide.

One serious question. Can a bear that has been captured and tagged by the state be entered into B&C books. Someone told me no.

If he was sitting any further behind the bear he would be in the next room.

What a joke if, in fact, it was a tame bear.....

Here in NY it's illegal to bait bear or deer.
Feeding wild animals is stupid but it doesn't seem to be prosecuted.
There were some PA bear hunters at the diner this morning and they mentioned the bear but not the background .That group had only taken 1 small bear so far .I guess they didn't bring donuts !Pike Co has always been a good bear location .

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
Here in NY it's illegal to bait bear or deer.
Feeding wild animals is stupid but it doesn't seem to be prosecuted.
There were some PA bear hunters at the diner this morning and they mentioned the bear but not the background .That group had only taken 1 small bear so far .I guess they didn't bring donuts !Pike Co has always been a good bear location .

Where did you get the idea that this bear was taken over bait?

The person that WAS feeding the bear WAS prosecuted & he was no longer feeding the bear.

The comments to the linked article imply that he was fed for a long time by more than one person as I read it. I have known circumstances where that was the case.
BTW it takes little time or effort for a deer or bear to cross from PA to NY here .A 200 yd river is no problem. I've seen that and if they don't want to get wet they can , and have , crossed the bridge !!

Evidently the bear was still wild in some sense.....but it doesn't look like he feared people terribly.....this pic is the old guy feeding the bear that was killed.

not withstanding the legaility, they shot a tame bear. Lack of class.

troy

lack of class notwithstanding, how long before that bear got a bug up it's rear and decided instead of old pizza, it would rather have a bite of that old man? DO NOT TRY TO BEFRIEND OR TAME WILD ANIMALS! old timmy treadwell tried that, and how did that end up for him? it was community service to kill that bear.

From what I've heard, he was able to pattern the bear traveling between feeding stations and shot it on state land.

You could probably do that at a circus, no?

or a zoo...

quote:

Originally posted by Norton:
Evidently the bear was still wild in some sense.....but it doesn't look like he feared people terribly.....this pic is the old guy feeding the bear that was killed.

Well...y'all know the mantra: "a fed bear is a dead bear!"

No different than feeding the hogs and deer at the automatic feeders in Texas.....with the texas tripod stand nearby. Its all in how you view it and what your expectations are.

Woodrow, I'll agree with you IF you can produce pics of you leaning on a 300# Texas boar while he feeds at a feeder....matter of fact if you will take me with you when you try it I will film the whole thing to prove how "tame" Texas boars really are.....

troy

Nothing wrong with baiting bears where legal in lots of areas it is the main way to kill bears.

The idiot that was feeding this bear who cares what he thinks the bear was shot legaly. you try and make a pet of a wild animal and it get killed in hunting season to bad for you.

Dam that is a big black bear.

Most bears that get feed like this end up in trouble it ws a good bear to get rid of.

D - you missed my point entirely. I was not referring to anyone feeding an animal and petting it...just the fact that the hunter shooting a bear fed by others while the bear was on his way to his next meal ain't no different than a boar or deer killed coming to an automatic feeder to get his next meal. The difference here is the bear hunter had to at least pattern the bear to figure where he would show up next. Not the case when the automatic feeder goes off with a timer and both the animal and the hunter knows when that is going to happen. Anyway, I agree that bear was going to kill someone at some point...and probably not the guy feeding him.

Woodrow, your right about the bait. I have no problem with hunting bear/hogs over bait. I've killed a lot of hogs over bait.

I agree it would of been better IF the old guy had not started feeding that bear, and fed it for 15+ years, even petting it.

I see no reports of that bear causing problems with anyone. That may, or may not of, continued to be true. Never know now.

What I do have a major problem is with these bozo's, knowing the tameness of the bear, killing it and claiming to have done something honorable. And killing the tame beast in a pretty crappy manner.

troy

I agree....setting up specifically to kill that particular bear was not very sportsman-like. That old man could probably take a baseball bat to that guy for doing it like he did. Feeding that bear, as wrong as it may be was probably something that old guy looked forward to every day.

Bottom line as I see it.....if he targeted that tame bear and calls it a trophy he's a loser. I can just imagine the scenario: he sets up on the ground and waits for the bear.....then he starts throwing donuts toward the bear......once in range he shoots his "trophy".

This is NOT akin to baiting wild bears.

This story does no one credit. Either the guy feeding the bear or the unsportsmanlike manner in which it was killed.

Not trying to de-rail anything here, but this reminds me of a famous professional hunter that I heard one time. He said that "until somebody gets out there naked with a rock, I don't want to hear about fair chase". That was a little surprising to me.
Jeff

Is it any different than this:

quote:

Originally posted by Mikelravy:
This story does no one credit. Either the guy feeding the bear or the unsportsmanlike manner in which it was killed.

Yup.

quote:

Originally posted by Norton:
Evidently the bear was still wild in some sense.....but it doesn't look like he feared people terribly.....this pic is the old guy feeding the bear that was killed.

Bears don't get this big, without having an unusually ample food supply. One about this size was killed by a car, in Manitoba a few years ago. That bear's extraordinary size and weight were attributed to it's regular feeding at a local garbage dump. Good for the hunter. The guy that fed him, should have his finger and toe nails ripped out, one by one.
Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
Is it any different than this:

What's your point Vapo?
I hardly see a comparison between the Bear and this elk.
You think that elk was being fed by someone?

quote:

You think that elk was being fed by someone?

Yup.....but I have no direct proof.....

It's just difficult to see this as a wild animal and not one pen raised and fed specific minerals and injections for growth of antlers.....

Other interesting evidence as well.

Probably best left alone for another thread. This one is about a hand fed bear!

Thats the Spyder bull , taken on public land in Utah. Definitly not tame OR hand fed.

troy

The spyder bull was killed in UGLY fashion in my humble estimation. Several groups of guides with radios teaming up so one elderly SPORTSMAN can be summoned to the kill site.

How many groups of radio controlled guides working in unison can you have and still have a fair chase hunt??? Does being on public land make it more ethical? Neither of these scenarios appeal to me. JMO

my apologies....lets keep this thread about a bear....