Graphic footage obtained and released by the Humane Society of the United States shows a father and son high-five after killing a mother bear and her shrieking newborn cubs. The pair, Andrew Renner and his son Owen Renner, who was 17 at the time of the poaching incident, were sentenced in January.
In the video, released by the Alaska Department of Public Safety through a public records request, the father and son from Wasilla, Alaska, can be seen skiing up to the bear den and shooting into it. After the first round of firing, the two young bear cubs can be heard shrieking before they too are shot.
After the pair pull the mother bear’s body out of the den, the video shows that they stop for a moment and high-five one another. The video also shows Andrew Renner take a photo of Owen Renner posing with the mother bear’s lifeless body. The video was edited down by the Humane Society.
“They’ll never be able to link it to us I don’t think,” one of the two men can be heard saying in the video.
The den had been fitted with a motion-activated audio and video camera that caught the poaching incident that took place in April 2018. The bears were part of a study between state and federal officials.
“The defendant, and anyone else that would pursue game in our state, should be on notice that killing a sow with cubs and then poaching the cubs to cover it up, will result in a significant jail term and loss of hunting privileges,” Assistant Attorney General Aaron Peterson said in a statement at the time of the Renners’ sentencing. “People must know that poachers will be required to pay large fines and restitution for the illegal killing of the animals and that the vehicles, boat, planes, and instrumentalities used in wildlife crimes will be forfeited. These are the sentencing provisions that will let people know that Alaska does not tolerate poaching.”
Andrew Renner was sentenced to five months in jail with two months suspended. In addition, he was ordered to pay fines, forfeit hunting equipment and his hunting license was suspended for 10 years. Owen Renner was sentenced to suspended jail time, community service and required to take a hunters safety course. His hunting license was suspended for two years.
When Alaska State Troopers announced charges against the Renners, The Associated Press reported that the Renners realized the mother bear had a Fish and Game collar after they dragged her from the den. Troopers said they returned to the den two days later to pick up shell casings and dispose of the dead bear cubs.
The video shows the father and son come back to dispose of the dead bear cubs.
“This video of a father and son killing a mother bear and her babies in their den and showing complete disregard for the lives they are taking is reprehensible,” Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement.
The Humane Society noted that the Trump administration is poised to overturn a 2015 Obama-era rule that prohibits the killing of black bear mothers and cubs in their dens on Alaskan lands.
“This kind of killing runs contrary to the very purpose of federal public lands like national preserves and national wildlife refuges,” Block said. “It is too sad and too late for this mom and her babies, but not too late for the government to abandon this heartless plan to enable such killing and instead maintain the rules that protect America’s iconic wildlife.”
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