Posted on 09/13/2011 4:50:13 PM PDT by SJackson
U.S. prosecutors charge a man who said he was protecting his family. State residents and officials are outraged.
Reporting from Bonners Ferry, Idaho— To understand the deep rift over federal regulation of endangered species, one only had to sit in the stands of the annual 4-H auction at the Boundary County Fairgrounds here last month, when 14-year-old Jasmine Hill's handsome pig, Regina, went up for sale.
First, it's important to know the back story: Jasmine's father, Jeremy, had been charged by the U.S. Justice Department a few weeks earlier with shooting a grizzly bear — a federally designated threatened species — 40 yards from the back door of the family home at the base of the Selkirk Mountains.
Plenty of people have been charged with illegally killing endangered wolves, bears, caribou and other animals with tenuous footholds in the rugged country in places like northern Idaho.
But this was different. Hill, his neighbors said, was protecting his home and his family. He was doing what any of them might have done. And now a man trying to raise six children out in the woods on a backhoe operator's earnings was facing up to a year in prison and a $50,000 fine.
So when Jasmine started shyly prodding her prized pig around the arena, Sam Fodge, the owner of a wood-chip mill, quickly bought it at $4.50 a pound, or $1,143. Then Fodge said: "Give it back. Sell it again."
The pig sold next to North Idaho Energy Logs. Then Pluid Logging. Then Three Mile Cafe. In all, Regina was sold 15 times, raising a total of $19,588 for Hill's legal defense fund. Jasmine hung her head, dumbfounded, in the arena. Jeremy and his wife, Rachel, were in tears.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Shoot, shovel and shut-up...
God bless the people of that community.
Hill has said he was getting out of the shower on Mother's Day in May when his wife spotted a female grizzly and a pair of 2-year-old juveniles nosing around the pigpen 40 yards outside. The two began shouting for their children, who had last been seen playing basketball on the opposite side of the house, but got no answer.While Rachel went to look for the children, Hill picked up his gun and went onto the back deck. He leveled the weapon at one of the young bears, which was climbing into the pigpen, and fired. The other juvenile bear and the sow rushed into the woods in fright, while the young bear Hill had shot limped off, and then turned and moved back toward the house.
No offence to our FR lawyers, but the law is an ass. The kids are missing. I might have fired a "warning" shot, a bear banger which often runs them, but it was the pigs that were in danger, not the children, humans, who were missing, so obviously this was an assault on the endangered bears. Legal problems. Worse yet, the young bear Hill had shot limped off and he shot him or her, murder.
I'm not big on killing animals that you're not going to eat, or which aren't a threat. But I'd love to hear how three grizzers around missing children aren't a threat.
Shovel ready project.
BTTT
A Griz would require plenty of shoveling, though the “perp” (hero) IS a backhoe operator.
“Shoot, shovel and shut-up...”
DITTO!
ping
Wasteful. In a rational society, he would have had a BBBQ. Bear BBQ for the acronymically challenged.
Wasteful. In a rational society, he would have had a BBBQ. Bear BBQ for the acronymically challenged.
Wasteful. In a rational society, he would have had a BBBQ. Bear BBQ for the acronymically challenged.
I might have misunderstood your post, but I’ll pass on your outdoor life etc. list and look to someone else for ping. I will not judge the man. “Murder” a bear, sheesh.
Good News.
According to the Bonners Ferry Herald,
Federal charges dropped against Jeremy Hill
http://www.bonnersferryherald.com/breaking_news/article_36231f84-d9a6-11e0-a52d-001cc4c03286.html
Good for Idahoans. Some of the best folks in one of the best states in the country. First state to have officially nullified Obamacare.
Unfortunately, if I read the article correctly, it did cost a thousand dollars for the citation.
She has TWO CHILLUNS ~ and her name is "Wendy".
I smell a rat in this one ~
Wendy Olson, the federal prosecutor, is a statist scumbag.
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