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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: November 2006

The king, the baron, a celebrity & hunting "sportsmanship"

 

The Russian business daily Kommersant on October 19, 2006 published a written allegation by Vologda region deputy hunting chief Sergei Starostin that a "good-natured and joyful bear" named Mitrofan was in August 2006 taken from his home at a local holiday resort, "generously fed vodka mixed with honey," and "pushed into a field" where "His Highness Juan Carlos of Spain took him out with one shot."

The king, 68, "neither hunted with Russian President Vladimir Putin nor killed a bear," a palace spokesperson told Paul Haven of Associated Press. Haven noted that the Kommersant account never mentioned Putin.

Vologda governor Vyacheslav Pozgalyov's spokes-person Yevgenia Toloknova told Haven that the governor had "set up a working group, including a deputy governor and top environmental protection officials, to look into the incident."

The allegation involving King Juan Carlos followed the October 2 disclosure for Spiegel Television, of Germany, that a "world record" 600-pound red deer with 37 antler branches shot in 2005 by the Baron Eberhard von Gemmingen-Hornberg "was no roaring wild stag of the Bulgarian beech forests," as initial reports declared, "but rather a tame, chocolate-loving deer raised in an Austrian game reserve," summarized Independent Berlin correspondent Tony Patterson. The deer had been fed calcium tablets to enhance antler growth.

"The stag's name was Burlei. He was completely tame. Children liked to feed him chocolate," said his former owner, Rudolf Pöttinger, on camera. Pottinger sold Burlei for £13,500. The Baron von Gemmingen-Hornberg paid the Etropole outfitting firm Elen Hunting £65,000 to shoot Burlei. The baron was unsuccessful in an attempt to sue Elen Hunting, after his "record" was annulled.

The incidents involving royalty hunting in Eastern Europe echoed U.S. federal indictments of country singer Troy Lee Gentry, 39, and captive hunting facility owner Lee Marvin Greenly, 46, on multiple charges resulting from Gentry killing a captive-reared bear in October 2004.

"The government alleged that Gentry and Greenly tagged a bear named Cubby, killed on Greenly's property," in Sandstone, Minnesota, called the Minnesota Wildlife Connection, "and registered the animal as if killed from the wild population. The false tagging would be a violation of the federal Lacey Act," wrote Tad Vezner of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "Gentry allegedly bought the bear from Greenly for about $4,650. The bear's death was videotaped, and the tape later edited so Gentry appeared to shoot the bear with a bow and arrow in a 'fair chase' hunting situation," continued Vezner. "The pair then shipped the bear's hide to a Kentucky taxidermist, the indictment said."

Gentry and Greenly could each receive a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted--but Lacey Act sentencing history indicates that they would probably get much less.

In a comparable case, U.S. Magistrate Carolyn S. Ostby, of Great Falls, Montana, on October 8, 2006 fined Lin Torgerson, 30, $2,500, ordered him to make $500 restitution, and put him on probation for two years.

Not a licensed outfitter, Torgerson, of Etheridge, Montana, arranged for a Pennsylvania man and his 13-year-old son to obtain hunting permits, illegally coordinate a deer hunt with two-way radios, kill three deer while licensed to kill just two, and have the trophy mounts sent to their home.

The steepest Lacey Act penalties in connection with trophy hunting of which ANIMAL PEOPLE has record were issued in January 2006 by Judge Richard Cebull and U.S. Magistrate Richard Anderson, of Bozeman, Montana.

Cebull fined outfitter John Daniel McDonald, 38, $50,000, and barred him from ever hunting or outfitting again.

Anderson in the same case fined McDonald's clients Jeffrey Stuart Young, 46, and Frank Earl Shulze, 57, of Santa Rosa, California, $2,500 each; ordered them to make $16,300 and $8,000 restitution, respectively; barred them from hunting for five years and fishing for two years; and placed them on two years probation. The defendants are believed to have killed more than 15 elk, among other animals.

Anderson also ordered Young and Schultz to write apologies to Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks investigators for accusing them of lying in letters that Young and Schultz sent to higher-ups, including then-Montana Governor Judy Martz.