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Rael
04-07-2010, 06:22 AM
People like this should be locked up and never let out! :mad:

'Bear man' guilty on feeding charges

VANDERGAW: Plea deal includes fine, plus suspended jail time.

By JAMES HALPIN
jhalpin@adn.com

Published: April 6th, 2010 09:44 PM
Last Modified: April 6th, 2010 10:40 PM

After nearly a year of legal wrangling, Charlie Vandergaw, who for 20 years fed and coexisted with the bears at his Mat-Su cabin, has pleaded guilty to eight counts of intentionally feeding game, according to the state Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals.



Vandergaw, 71, was charged last May with 20 counts of illegally feeding game at his "Bear Haven" in the Yentna River valley, about 50 miles northwest of Anchorage.

Vandergaw pleaded guilty last week to eight of the charges and prosecutors have dismissed the remaining 12, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Peterson said. A plea agreement, if accepted by the judge, calls for Vandergaw to receive 180 days of suspended jail time, a fine of between $20,000 and $72,000 and three years of probation, Peterson said.

Vandergaw's sentencing is set for Thursday morning in Palmer.

The criminal misdemeanor charges against Vandergaw covered bear feedings from May 10 to Sept. 19, 2008, though charging documents alleged the feedings of both black and grizzly bears had been going on far longer.


Charging documents say troopers can document more than 10,000 pounds of dog food being flown to Bear Haven, although no dogs are there.

Vandergaw and his bears have also been documented on television. The Animal Planet show "Stranger Among Bears," which aired last spring, showed him feeding the bears.

A woman who answered the phone at Vandergaw's Anchorage home on Tuesday said he wouldn't be available to comment until later in the week. Vandergaw's attorney, Kevin Fitzgerald, did not return a message seeking comment.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/04/06/1214991/bear-haven-man-pleads-to-feeding.html#ixzz0kPsP2f6s

Agorism
04-07-2010, 06:37 AM
So long as people can shoot the bears too.

werdd
04-07-2010, 08:17 AM
?????? Why is this a crime? Should feeding birds be illegal? What about spreading deer corn? Fucking retarded.

pacelli
04-07-2010, 08:20 AM
Why is he a sick bastard? Are people who put out bird feeders sick bastards too?

Agorism
04-07-2010, 08:21 AM
If people are going to feed those bears so that they associate food with humans (like Pavlov's dogs...those bears are simple creatures,) well then people shouldn't complain if the residents kill them all when they start approaching the houses.

Stary Hickory
04-07-2010, 08:22 AM
?????? Why is this a crime? Should feeding birds be illegal? What about spreading deer corn? Fucking retarded.

This is my initial response too. I cannot understand a strong reaction against this man. You can only say that eh created a dependency for the bears and that this could be harmful to both the bears and the unsuspecting people they attempt to acquire food from in the future.

Yet no crime has been comitted....no one has been harmed. So really I see this issue as being a bit overblown.

Agorism
04-07-2010, 08:23 AM
Those bears are protected though. That means you can't shoot them.

If you can't shoot them, I don't know if I want people feeding them either.

Ya so next time the neighbors find a pissed off bear tearing through their garbage and running in their lawn, they'll know why.

pacelli
04-07-2010, 08:34 AM
Those bears are protected though. That means you can't shoot them.

If you can't shoot them, I don't know if I want people feeding them either.

Ya so next time the neighbors find a pissed off bear tearing through their garbage and running in their lawn, they'll know why.


"It might be worse if he quit," said Mike Williams, owner of Eagle Song Lodge at Trail Lake. The lodge is within 10 miles of Vandergaw's homestead, and biologists say that puts it within the home ranges of at least some Bear Farm bears. If Vandergaw stops feeding now, Williams said, there is no telling where the bears might go looking for food.

Like other neighbors, Williams has never complained to troopers. In the absence of serious problems, Bush Alaskans tend to tolerate odd behavior in their neighbors. Nearly everyone in the community of Alexander Creek to the south of Vandergaw's cabin shares that live-and-let-live philosophy -- even those with an old-school, shoot-on-sight attitude toward bears.


<>Not to mention seeding the countryside, they contend, with human-conditioned bears that could run up looking for treats and instead get a bullet from a justifiably terrified human. One rural neighbor of Vandergaw's, in fact, claims to have shot a bear doing just that last summer.



Read more: http://www.adn.com/2007/04/15/143089/retiree-welcomes-neighborhood.html#ixzz0kQOzr2Xk

idirtify
04-07-2010, 08:37 AM
No crime here. Even if you worry that feeding bears will eliminate their fear of humans, there are no other humans living anywhere near Charlie’s property.

I’ve seen the show. It’s great. The bears are so tame it’s ridiculous.

So this old guy tries to make peace with the bears he previously hunted (yes there is a season on bears) and moves out into the extreme remote wilderness to feed and befriend them – and the government flies in with helicopters and gets him.

In Indiana you will suffer a similar punishment if you are caught picking up roadkill.

Agorism
04-07-2010, 08:42 AM
Remember that monkey who ate that girls face when she drove up to her friend's drive way. The lady was feeding her giant chimp some sort of antidepressant, and she also slept in the same bed with the monkey at night.

I trust a bear who likes food from the humans just about as much as that chimp. Why can't people shoot this bear if it's coming near humans?