A video shared by the Humane Society of the United States shows the brutal killing of a mother bear and her two cubs by two poachers. The poachers, father and son duo Andrew and Owen Renner, have since been apprehended and sentenced for the crime.
The video was shared by the Humane Society of the United States in order to raise awareness about "egregious trophy hunting practices" on federal land. If you would like to sign the petition to demand stronger protections for wildlife on federal lands, you can do so here.
*Content Warning: the video and depictions below contain graphic content.
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TL;DR A video posted to Facebook on Wednesday shows two poachers killing a mother bear and her two cubs. The poachers have since been identified and sentenced.
The video below, posted to Facebook and YouTube yesterday, has understandably sparked outrage. At the time of writing, it had been viewed over 160k times and shared by close to 4,000 people.
The crime was caught on camera by a wildlife camera that was set up to study the bears.
The video shows the two hunters entering the sleeping bears' den on Esther Island in Prince William Sound and killing the mother while the two cubs look on, shrieking. The hunters then kill the two cubs as well.
Afterwards, the men take turns posing with the bear's carcass. When they realised the mother was wearing a Fish and Game collar, they removed it and butchered her carcass.
Via Humane Society of the United States
Several days later, the camera caught the men returning to the site and retrieving evidence of what they had done, taking away the cubs' bodies and removing shell casings.
“They’ll never be able to link it to us,” said Owen Renner. But they did. According to the Humane Society, hunting a mother bear with cubs is illegal in that part of Alaska.
Andrew received a 3-month jail sentence and was fined $9,000. He also forfeited personal property including a 22-foot boat, his vehicle, and various weapons. His son received 30 days of suspended jail time. Both lost their hunting licenses.