Date
August 23, 2006
Contact
Elliot M. Katz
(415) 388-9641, ext. 225
In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner Blvd
San Rafael
CA 94901
IDA is an international, California-based animal advocacy organization dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by defending their rights, welfare and habitats.
IDA Urges Stiffest Prosecution of Country Music Star Troy Gentry
St. Paul, Minn.—In Defense of Animals (IDA) has fired off a letter to Senior Judge Paul A. Magnuson, urging him to prosecute country music star Troy Lee Gentry – who was charged with illegally killing a tame black bear and then trying to make it appear as if the bear had been hunted and killed in the wild – to the fullest extent of the law.
Gentry allegedly paid $4,650 to Lee Marvin Greenly, of Sandstone, Minn., a hunting guide and owner of the Minnesota Wildlife Connection, to take possession of a bear named Cubby. The government charges that Gentry then shot Cubby, with a bow and arrow, in an enclosed pen on Greenly’s property, where a number of wild animals are kept.
The two men labeled the carcass with a Minnesota hunting license and fallaciously registered the kill with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on the claim that Gentry had shot the bear in the wild.
Cubby’s death was reportedly videotaped and edited to make it appear as though Gentry had hunted and killed the bear as part of a “fair chase” scenario in the wild. By shooting an animal in an enclosure from which there is no escape, Gentry completely disregarded the “Fair Chase” creed that separates hunters from cold-blooded killers. There is no way of knowing at this time how many arrows Gentry needed to kill Cubby or how long it took him to die.
Cubby’s remains were sent to a taxidermist in Kentucky. Shipping the hide across state lines violated the Lacey Act, a federal law which prohibits trade in illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold animals and plants. Gentry pled “not guilty” to conspiracy charges in connection with falsely tagging the dead bear as a wild kill.
“To dishonestly and illegally kill a trapped, helpless animal, and then have it stuffed for display, is the height of manipulation, cowardice, and callousness. On behalf of our 85,000 members, we ask that Mr. Gentry and Mr. Greenly be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” wrote Elliot Katz, DVM, president of In Defense of Animals, in his letter to Judge Magnuson.
Gentry and Greenly could each face up to five years in federal prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted. Greenly faces additional charges for illegally setting up bear-baiting stations and hunting stands in the Sandstone National Wildlife Refuge last year and guiding hunters to the spot where they killed two black bears.
For more information, please visit www.idausa.org.