TOWN OF RICHMOND, WI- The man accused of shooting a black bear on his property in Shawano County last week has been cited.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has not released the man’s name, but court records show he is a Town of Richmond resident and was issued a citation for Harass or Kill aProtected Wild Animal, in the amount of $478.30 for the June 3rd incidnet.
The court document states that it was found that defendant shot and killed a bear that had three cubs on his property located in the Town of Richmond.
It also states that the defendant allegedly shot the bear 4 to 5 times with a 9 mm handgun and then twice more with a 7mm magnum rifle. No other information about the incident was provided.
Abby Wallrich lives in the area where the bear was shot, and even saw the bear right before hand.
“We heard a crash and I knew right away what it was”, she said. “I looked at my parents and said, Oh boy, mamas back!”
Wallrich says the adult female was at the bird feeder and the three cubs ran up a tree. She says she then texted her neighbor and stated that the bears were coming to their yard.
“Not even five minutes later we heard the gunshots,” Wallrich said. “We counted five really quick ones in a row.”
She said she texted her neighbor again to ask if she heard the shots as well.
“We both were hoping that it was just to scare the bear away. Our first thought was, could he really do that?”
Wallrich says her neighbor lives next to where the gunshots came from.
According to the court document, the defendant failed to call in the incident until the next day.
Abby stated that in the last month, she saw the bear family on her property four different times, and each time, the bear did not show any aggression.
“The mama bear and cubs were coming to our bird feeders and knocking them down multiple times in the last few weeks.”
She said the bear family has been the talk of Red River for the last month.
“Tons of people have been posting pictures of these bears and really the only concern we had was our dog, but if anything it was just kind of comical because she knocked our bird feeder over multiple times.”
According to the DNR, it is against state law to shoot a protected animal outside of the season.
“It breaks my heart for the cubs and we even discussed calling the DNR to see if they needed to relocate the bear but we decided, no, we don’t want to do anything that would potentially separate this mom from her cubs.”
The young cubs have since been relocated. Many people in the area have offered different ways to support the cubs.
Court records show the suspect has a court date that he can appear for on July 13th.
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