Rancher fined for killing grizzly; reward now up to $6,000 in Dupuyer area shooting. By Karl Puckett. Great Falls Tribune Staff Writer
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Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Comments
I don’t know about these fines and prosecutions and trying to find an honest judge and objective jury. It’s all so unreliable. When we catch these guys, wouldn’t it be more fair and lots easier to just turn them over to a delegation of Grizzlies for proper punishment?
$2,000 is a slap on the wrist if the judge didn’t believe it was self defense.
In Montana we use the griz as a mascot for UM and marketing tool for everything you can imagine, but a paltry punishment like this shows how much we really value the bears.
Shot it with a .22? I guess that rancher missed the ballistics discussion in the other thread.
Jburnham, I think everywhere out west has little value for the grizzly.
If that fine ($2K) is indicative of the norm, the fines don’t even cover the costs of the reward needed to get a conviction (now up to $6K), let alone the court and investigative costs. Slap on the wrist? More like a kiss on the cheek!
$2,000? I think the fine is usually more for poaching or shooting deer and elk out of season. Shows how smart or how much the powers that be value endangered species!
Jimbob, you might be taking one of their deer or elk away. You aren’t taking one of their grizzlies away.