Pennsylvania Game News - August 2016 - 10

Mark had covered this portion of
Potter County before our districts were
reorganized, and he said he'd received
a report of a mangy bear in the same
area, but that bear was reported to have
weighed nearly 150 pounds.
I went home and placed the cub's
remains into a box not much bigger than
a briefcase, and stuck it in the freezer.
After a restless night, I returned to the
farmhouse, but again no one was home.
Walking over to the burn barrel to
look around once more, I noticed a bare
spot between several pine trees, about
10 yards away, on the opposite side of a
wire fence. Near the base of one tree, I
found blood stains and what looked like
bear fur.
It appeared the cub had been taking
cover in the tree at the time it was shot.
Given that fact, and the cub's small size,
it seemed I'd be able to rule out any claim
the shooter had acted in self-defense.
I photographed the spot, collected
samples of the blood-stained ground,
and left.
After several phone calls, I finally
reached the young woman who lived at
the farmhouse and we agreed to meet
the next day. She clearly was disturbed
by what had happened.
The woman told me the cub had been
rummaging through the burn barrel as
her neighbor pulled into the driveway.
He boarded his horse at the barn on the
property.
Seeing the pickup, the cub scurried up
a nearby pine tree.
The man had a rifle and began to walk
toward it, and at 30 yards he knelt down
and opened fire.
The cub dropped from the tree.
She said she saw the man place the
cub in the burn barrel, and she provided
a written statement to that effect.
10

She gave us permission to search the
outbuildings at the farm, but I did not find
the missing head and claws in the barn,
as I thought I might.
When I met with the man later that
afternoon, he told me he shot the bear in
the barn after it attacked his horse.
He also said the bear had mange, and
that was the reason he burned it. He said
he was concerned for the safety of his
horse. He claimed to have no knowledge
of why the bear's head and claws were
missing.
I told him the evidence we'd collected
told a story different than his, but he stuck
to his story - even after I informed him
of the charges he could face.
He had no answer to my question of
why a 25-pound bear cub would attack
a 1,000-pound horse.
Despite burn damage to the bear,
I hoped we still could be determine
whether it had mange.
I met with Game Commission veterinarian Justin Brown at the diagnostic
laboratory at Penn State, where he took
skin samples from the bear.
While he found mites on the bear's
skin, he concluded the cub did not have
mange. Bears normally have several
species of mites on them that cause no
irritation or complications, Brown said.
Meanwhile, I had learned the man
who killed the bear not only was boasting
about it, but also was bragging the cub
was still alive when he doused it with
gasoline and lit it on fire.
A witness described him as having a
grin on his face as he told the story.
I'd heard enough, and scheduled a
second interview with the man to settle
this once and for all.
I informed him of his Miranda rights,
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - August 2016
