It appears he is charged with the importation of the mounted bear head and not with the shooting itself.
“Rodger Dale DeVries, 73, entered a guilty plea this week to one count of illegally importing polar-bear parts.”
and
“According to court documents, Mr. DeVries travelled to Nunavut in November, 2000, where he obtained a licence and polar-bear tag and paid an outfitter $12,500 to take him hunting.
After killing a bear, he had it mounted by a taxidermist in Calgary. Mr. DeVries then left it in storage with a friend there because he knew he couldn’t legally take it to the U.S.
In the summer of 2007, he went back to Calgary and moved the bear mount and its skull to a storage unit in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. From there, Mr. DeVries and his two grandchildren, both minors, took the trophy by boat to a tiny harbour in northern Michigan, then drove it home.”
Why cant he have his bear head? Is this the same kind of enviornmental garbage that does not allow people to care for injured songbirds or pick up bluejay feathers?
Dam**d government regulatory agencies!
What a messy situation.
I am kind of curious about how the “authorities” found out about the mount getting into the USA.
This is yet another lesson on why you must learn to eat what you kill and then clear your plate.
“Rodger Dale DeVries, 73, entered a guilty plea this week to one count of illegally importing polar-bear parts.”
Why? Michigan is thick with hunters, and they know about jury nullification.
Easy not guilty verdict by the hunter jury. The man needs to put some faith in his fellow hunters that they’ll do the right thing.
“In the summer of 2007, he went back to Calgary and moved the bear mount and its skull to a storage unit in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. From there, Mr. DeVries and his two grandchildren, both minors, took the trophy by boat to a tiny harbour in northern Michigan, then drove it home.”
He knew exactly what he was doing and chose to break the law.