Man accused of killing mama bear goes to court
By Los Angeles Times
A Northern California man is facing charges for allegedly shooting a mother bear whose cubs he later tried to sell at a gas station last summer, authorities say.
Chris Puett said he shot the mother of the two bears, a brother and sister, who are now sleeping through their first winter at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.
“I was defending my life. I don’t feel that there should be penalties for defending my life,” Puett said in a TV interview.
While there are strict rules against poaching bears, and killing a bear with cubs, those rules don’t apply when the bear is charging or threatening a human life, and that’s what Puett claims happened.
Back when he shot the mother last summer, he said he killed her. And he collected her cubs in a cage, he said, until he could find someone to take the place of their mother.
He was found last June trying to sell the two baby black bears at a gas station in North San Juan, 75 miles northeast of Sacramento, telling California Department of Fish and Game wardens he was “just trying to find them a good home.”
The reason, he said, was because he had shot and killed their mother on his property a few days before.
“He told us he had shot the mother bear in self-defense and the mother bear ran off, leaving the cubs behind,” department spokesman Patrick Foy said at the time.
Puett said in an interview this week with KTXL-TV in Sacramento that the cub’s mother was after some dog food when the two came face-to-face. But now he’s saying he didn’t kill her. He says he aimed the gun to the side when he fired so he only injured her.
The Department of Fish and Game isn’t buying it, Puett said.
“They think my whole story is a bunch of bear poo,” he said.
Even though no one’s ever found the mother bear’s body, Puett says he’s facing some pretty stiff penalties for what he did that day. He goes to court Wednesday in Nevada County to face the bear-killing charges.
“I do not want to forfeit my gun. I do not want to take a hunter safety course, because I wasn’t hunting. And the fine is a fine,” he said.
Wildlife officials say the two bears will be transferred within the next month, while they are in hibernation, to a den in the wild in or around the Tahoe National Forest.
He is a Bunch of Bear POO , PROSECUTE TO THE MAX ON THIS BEAR KILLER,HE DOES NOT BELONG HERE, IF HE DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO RESPECT THE BEARS,HE NEEDS TO LEARN ALOT ABOUT BEAR COUNTRY.
What a disgusting human being. Trying to SELL the babies. I pray there is justice for momma.
thank God the the Tahoe Wild Life Care….maybe, in a small way, it will makeup for this horrible mans lack of respect for nature….i cannot tell you how people like this sicken me…if you cannot live amongst our creatures, move.
I’ll just say that Judge Kathy and Judge Lisa need to respect his innocence until proven guilty. If the mama bear did charge him, he is guilty of not turning to the wildlife refuge with two bear cubs. Two sides to the story executioners.
Toughen Up: If someone is on a jury, then they are obligated to ensure the prosecution provides sufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. If I (or Lisa, Kathy, etc.) are not on a jury, we have no such constraints.
OJ was guilty IMHO; he was and is scum, but a jury did not believe the prosecution provided for his quilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That does not make him innocence in a legal sense, simply in the juries mind (and I think they were completely wrong mind you) the prosecution did not provide a convincing enough argument about his quilt. OJ would need now to go back to court to legally have him declared innocent – something he has not bothered to do – hmmm, I wonder why.
So, this gentlemen was trying to sell cubs at a gas station – yes he is scum. Will he be convicted, who knows, OJ wasn’t. So here is a quiz for you, if he is not convicted, is he legally considered innocent? do you need a hint?. Rick
Thanks Rick
You are right. The prosecution has the burden of proving guilt. Ornery momma bear seeks savage’s sweet doggy treats … bang … Initially he said he killed the bear(an assumption perhaps) and later retracted to say he fired a warning shot(plausible). No bear remains have been found. It is wrong to attempt to sell baby cubs at a fuel station, the guy is ridiculous. I’ll go ahead and assume he is guilty of removing a bear from her cubs, and that he even shot a bear in the shoulder. No carcass, just a lonely momma bear limping around the woods with a serious pain in the neck. To be guilty of murdering a bear, we would need a heap of dead bear in his backyard. OJ left bodies, so I will assume Puett may be just a tad smarter than OJ. He is in a situation where his innocence is more realistic than OJ’s, IMHO.