Country Star Faces Charges For Killing Bear

POSTED: 11:57 am EDT August 16, 2006

DULUTH, Minn. -- Country singer Troy Lee Gentry appeared in U.S. District Court in Duluth Tuesday, accused of killing a tame black bear that federal officials say he tagged as killed in the wild.

Gentry, 39, of Franklin, Tenn., and Lee Marvin Greenly, 46, of Sandstone, are both indicted for conspiring to violate the Lacey Act by falsely tagging a tame black bear as killed in the wild.

Gentry is half of the singing duo Montgomery Gentry, a top country act since the late 1990s.

Authorities allege that Gentry purchased the bear from Greenly, a wildlife photographer and hunting guide who owns the Minnesota Wildlife connection in Sandstone.

According to the charges, Gentry shot the bear in an enclosed pen with a bow and arrow, then allegedly arranged for the doctoring of a videotape of the alleged "wild" kill.

Gentry and Greenly made their initial appearances Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Raymond Erickson in connection with a sealed indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Minneapolis in July.

The government alleged that Gentry and Greenly tagged the dead bear, killed on Greenly's property in October 2004, with a Minnesota hunting license and registered the animal with the state Department of Natural Resources as a wild kill.

According to the indictment, Gentry paid about $4,650 for the bear, named "Cubby." The bear's death was videotaped, and the tape later edited so Gentry appeared to shoot the bear in a "fair chase" hunting situation, the government alleged.

If convicted, both Gentry and Greenly face a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a $20,000 fine.

Greenly also was charged with two unrelated crimes related to his work as a licensed commercial bear guide. The indictment alleges that Greenly and his employees guided commercial hunting clients onto the Sandstone National Wildlife Refuge, where he set up bear-baiting stations and hunting stands. In 2005, one of his clients shot and killed two black bear in the refuge, where it's illegal to hunt black bear, the indictment alleges.

Greenly refused to comment Tuesday. A spokesman for Gentry said he couldn't comment.

Minnesota's black bear population is healthy and the state encourages hunting as a way to control it, said DNR spokesman Mark LaBarbara. The department said hunters killed 3,391 bears in 2004.

"But there's no question that the state does not condone shooting a pen-raised bear," LaBarbara said.


discuss?

 

If true that absolutely disgusts me. I've hunted whitetail for nearly 20 yrs and will be hunting elk in October for the time. Always in wide open country, always fair chase, always to put meat in the freezer. I don't begrudge trophy hunters as long as they don't waste the meat. But for someone to kill a pen raised animal - in the pen - please, again, if true, disgusting. Not to mention it will give the nuts over at peta something to flash in front of the media for the next ten years.

 

If it's true, they should put him in a pen outdoors for a few months. Let him enjoy living off the same crap the bear got. Even if it's not true...PETA will say something about it. Probably have Pam Anderson at his hearing. And she won't let her new hubby hang out with them, if he ever did. I don't know but he is tight with some of the country folk.

 

They were my favorite band.....I am disappointed and disgusted. I really thought they stood for something and were better than that.

 

Looks like maybe we're only liking the Eddie Montgomery half of the equation. I never did like Troy, anyway. What a slimey thing to do. But yeah, it's giving the tree huggers poop to fling for a decade, TXPSD.

Ryan

 

Big +1!!!!!!!! Every word.

 

What a loser. The guy has plenty of money and time, I would think he could afford to go on a real bear hunt. I hope they throw the book at him.

 

if it were a "pen bear" that's not at all right, but i don't know of a truly tame bear. i'll give the guys the benifit of "inocent until proven guilty" aspect before i condemn.
and i'd ask about deer "farms"... bait and food plots, salt licks, apple trees planted for lure.

 

i always wondered about anyone who hunts anything illegally. i know some meat is good tasting, but to go to jail over it? or maybe they just get thier kicks off of killing things and refuse to do it legally, would be to much trouble.

also i can't stand anyone who needs to bait, make sounds or anything else to manipulate an animal into attracting it for a kill, i would think the "hunt" would be the sport of hunting, but to many people are lazy now days to make the effort, rather sit back and have the animal come to them or get close for the easy shot, as if they just like to kill something. i could understand if a person does it because they need the food, but in america i seriously doubt it.

but if this guy is found guilty, i hope its high profile as a deterent to others.

by the way, i am not anti-hunting, i hunt (well try to!) and truly beleive hunting as a sport.

 

Good point bf250. You are right baiting and such tactics take the sport out of it. It smells of being a sore loser. I hope the court makes an example out of Troy Gentry, the bear had a NAME for petes sake. I never could stand people that had to actually buy their manhood anyhow.

 

"I never could stand people that had to actually buy their manhood anyhow"

You can buy ego,but manhood you have to earn.

 

You have to wonder what in the heck these guys were thinking? I mean really, what was the point of shooting this bear? This sounds like something a 12 year old was think up. And the video tape doctoring? C'mon, these guys are flat-out idiots. I'm not so disgusted (I didn't read that the bear was tortured) as I am confused...this whole case leaves me thinking ***He did what? Bought a bear? And did what*** It's almost laughable.

 

Pathetic! I've hunted all my life too, not like this BS though. Not to start another arguement, but I've had issues with allot of bear hunters. Allot of guys I know do it. Bait them for weeks, then head up the tree and shoot them as they come to eat. Or run them down with teams of dogs, switching in fresh dogs as some get tired until the poor thing gets to tired and climbs a tree, then the Great White Hunter walks up and shoots "his self" a trophy bear "right out duh tree" WooHoo! I'm a man!
I know not every bear hunter uses these methods, just allot of the black bear hunters around here.
As long as you eat what you kill, and kill it without torment, do whatever you want I guess.

 

like shooting fish in a barrel

 

http://wcco.com/crime/local_story_228230943.html

The link above is to a CBS station in Minnesota, it is an article about Gentry but also has a video of the story. Bizzare is how best to describe it. It actually starts with deer - several dozen deer were trapped inside of an area where the water supply was drawn from after 9/11 as all access was gated to protect it. They became a captive herd and DNR wanted to thin the herd while locals didn't, they wanted them moved - as many of you may know, easier said then done. Well, Gentry steps in and offers to pay to have them moved this guy Greenly's "preserve", which is high fenced. DNR allows this to happen and Greenly says it will be a place where people can come and photograph wildlife up close. Gentry then buys this bear from Greenly for $4650 and kills it at the same place the deer were taken to. A lot of people are now wondering what happened to the deer. What the hell was this guy thinking...