# Operation something bruin The latest.



## The mtn man (Sep 9, 2014)

http://www.wlos.com//news/features/...ed-bear-poachers-found-not-guilty-17666.shtml


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## xlr8ngn (Sep 9, 2014)

Wow.  Looks like someone needs to go to jail, and they charged the wrong people.  Touted as a huge success, and to later erase it all....  There are enough people blatantly breaking the law, go after them.  Looks like there is some house cleaning that needs to be done.


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## BornToHuntAndFish (Sep 9, 2014)

cklem said:


> http://www.wlos.com//news/features/...ed-bear-poachers-found-not-guilty-17666.shtml
> 
> *Accused Bear Poachers Found Not Guilty*
> 
> ...



Saw a local metro Atlanta tv news report last night about this.  The video news report stated that Operation Something Bruin had arrested more than 80 people with 980 charges but about 90% of the charges have been dismissed while also saying the judge was troubled by officers' conduct during this operation.  I'll embed the 2:14-min. video report & we can see if the html code works or not.  Thanks for posting the update.


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## mick3 (Sep 9, 2014)

The asheville news media was wrong.  The reporter mike mason for wlos has a personal issue with these cases so he continues to miss inform the public.  Also he says that he guesses 90 percent of the cases were dismissed.  He has no facts of this and is misleading the public.  Before he makes statements he should know the truth.  If you read the asheville citizens news paper it states that two out of the three were found guilty but the jury did not want them to receive felonies due to a lengthy prison sentence.  So the jury had it reduced to misdemeanors and a new court date will be set for sentencing which will still probably be active jail time.


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## Hammer Spank (Sep 9, 2014)

No matter what the people being prosecuted deserve or get, the officers involved should all be fired.  It's these typical people that go into law enforcement that give DNR employees and cops a bad name.  What a waste of my money and real law enforcement time.  

Having said all of that, I am usually the guy who wants game poachers to get HAMMERED!  In PA, where I am from, there are no wrist slaps for spotlighting deer, or killing bears over bait.  You lose A LOT!  That's how I think it should be as I see wildlife as our nation's most valuable resource, but this is a bunch of nonsense.


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## mick3 (Sep 9, 2014)

Why do you think the officers involved should be fired? Either you want the poacher caught or you don't.  The news media has taken all of the comments from the guys that were charged and none from the court or the officers.  I think it is funny that Rusty McClean said he was happy with the decision even though he didn't mention his clients were still possibly going to jail for one year, fines of up to $100,000, losing their hunting licenses for 5 years, and banded from federal lands or the $50,000 that Mr. McClean has made from his client.   The person charged always says they are innocent. That is like asking a murderer if he killed someone.  Very rarely are you going to hear them admit it to the news that they done it when they are ashamed of what they have done. Some of these poachers can't be caught unless there are some of these undercover operations.  For instance these guys that were just convicted were baiting bears on private and forest service property with chocolate.  This causes the bear's teeth to rot out and eventually kills the bear.  Once they are dependent on the chocolate that is all that they eat.  These guys were also guiding bear hunting trips to these baits sites on forest service property during the closed season for thousands of dollars.  So these men were killing the resource in those areas illegally on public land.  So they stole your resources and got paid thousands of dollars to do it.  Without officers undercover going on some of these guided trips how would they be caught?  So if everyone went out and done this the bear population would be cut down dramatically and then everyone would complain about why the officers were allowing people to kill everything.  So i ask again do you want the poacher caught or not?


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## tree cutter 08 (Sep 10, 2014)

What else were they doing selling cocaine? 100,000 dollar fines and year in jail? Really? Seems a little stiff. I agree that law enforcement should enforce the law but they should also set the example. What I've read up on this, they should have stopped before he pulled the trigger.
Who would pay thousands of dollars to kill a bear in ga or nc? Don't know all the details on this story but seems like things got stretched out to far, cost 2 much money and time.


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## The mtn man (Sep 11, 2014)

I'm with you tree cutter. If you get caught poaching then your caught, but did it need to cost millions and take years to catch somebody feeding bears little Debbie's. Did they really need to bring seal team 6 to their houses to serve the warrants . That's just crazy to make such a fuss over baiting. The public here doesn't even care, they wish sone bears would get thinned out, but I realize the law is the law. Bear baiting on private land should be legal anyway, the public would defiantly support it, new law in nc this year. You can bait bears with grain for the first week of season. They get to bait them up north, why not bait them here, a bear is a bear, I never understand politics like this.


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## Hammer Spank (Sep 11, 2014)

mick3 said:


> Why do you think the officers involved should be fired? Either you want the poacher caught or you don't.  The news media has taken all of the comments from the guys that were charged and none from the court or the officers.  I think it is funny that Rusty McClean said he was happy with the decision even though he didn't mention his clients were still possibly going to jail for one year, fines of up to $100,000, losing their hunting licenses for 5 years, and banded from federal lands or the $50,000 that Mr. McClean has made from his client.   The person charged always says they are innocent. That is like asking a murderer if he killed someone.  Very rarely are you going to hear them admit it to the news that they done it when they are ashamed of what they have done. Some of these poachers can't be caught unless there are some of these undercover operations.  For instance these guys that were just convicted were baiting bears on private and forest service property with chocolate.  This causes the bear's teeth to rot out and eventually kills the bear.  Once they are dependent on the chocolate that is all that they eat.  These guys were also guiding bear hunting trips to these baits sites on forest service property during the closed season for thousands of dollars.  So these men were killing the resource in those areas illegally on public land.  So they stole your resources and got paid thousands of dollars to do it.  Without officers undercover going on some of these guided trips how would they be caught?  So if everyone went out and done this the bear population would be cut down dramatically and then everyone would complain about why the officers were allowing people to kill everything.  So i ask again do you want the poacher caught or not?




IF the things I've heard, and I grant you that's a big "if", are true then it seems that the DNR was trying to "make" criminals to prosecute and they actually did more law breaking than the rest of the entire crew combined.  This entire operation cost an unbelievable amount of money and very few people were actually prosecuted in the end.  I was expecting a massive gall bladder ring to have been unearthed when this all came out, but it's nothing like that.  

Why did the undercover officer have to kill a bear over their bait?  They already had all the charges of guiding and baiting made.  

I had expected that for an operation of this size to be put together, then there were a bunch of known offenders that were being targeted but it sounds like just the opposite.  Again, I may be missing some details on this and I am happy to see any game violators get hammered but this whole thing just seems ridiculous.


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## The mtn man (Sep 11, 2014)

I will say that it is my understanding that maybe a couple of the folks targeted in the operation , were some of the ones envolved in the big galbladder sting 30 years ago, or whenever it was. I can see makeing a big to do about folks killing bears to sale the galbladder, I just can't see how it was worth all this just to get some guys for baiting. Folks in north ga bait deer all the time, I don't believe anyone here could justify this much effort in charging someone for baiting.  IMO


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## Hammer Spank (Sep 11, 2014)

cklem said:


> I will say that it is my understanding that maybe a couple of the folks targeted in the operation , were some of the ones envolved in the big galbladder sting 30 years ago, or whenever it was. I can see makeing a big to do about folks killing bears to sale the galbladder, I just can't see how it was worth all this just to get some guys for baiting. Folks in north ga bait deer all the time, I don't believe anyone here could justify this much effort in charging someone for baiting.  IMO



Definitely not.  I would wager to guess that over half the people in the southern zone were baiting deer before it became legal.  This is just based on my experience hunting down there.  

The wal mart by my house just started selling corn and deer "cocaine" a couple weeks ago.  I don't think any of those people are loading up their trucks to head below the fall line.


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## The mtn man (Sep 11, 2014)

Yea that's obvious ain't it. As far as baiting on the NC side, baiting deer is legal, why not bears. I know the law is the law, but I just don't get it. Some say its bad for their teeth, but it's ok to feed deer anything, i think the thing that gets everyone's goat in this area about the whole thing , is that the habitual poachers were not targeted. There is a certain organized group of bear hunters in NC that are protected from GW . You cannot image how politically inner twined it is. This group has a very strong influence on our wildlife management here. The emphasis is always on bears, I think that is where the animosity comes from. I don't want anyone to get the impression that folks like myself are anti GW. It's just frustrating that folks run around here and shoot multiple limits of deer every year from their vehicles, and kill turkey's year round and boldly Bragg about it . And nothing is done, it's like they don't even care , but they get wind that somebody is feeding some bears , they bring in the green berets .


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## Hammer Spank (Sep 11, 2014)

And to me, bears are way more important than deer.  Deer have been reintroduced successfully to their entire native range but bears aren't and never will be even close to that.  It just seems ridiculous in this situation.


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## The mtn man (Sep 12, 2014)

Yes that makes sence if you haven't been use to bears your whole life. See how my generation in my area sees it is, we have never had deer, deer are just starting to take off really good here . We have never got to experience that, we have had plenty of bears for my lifetime anyway. A very small portion of hunters here even hunt them, we sure don't want there ex distance to be threatened, we just don't understand the reason behind the big to do over the sting operation, there is a whole lot of other poaching that goes on other than feeding bears. The city folks feed them all the time here at their vacation cabins , or weekend retreats or whatever they call it. But the point you made does make sence.


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## JustUs4All (Sep 12, 2014)

I wonder if the littering charges stuck.


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## The mtn man (Sep 12, 2014)

JustUs4All said:


> I wonder if the littering charges stuck.



Who knows? I don't think the cases above envolved littering. I think these were the guys that let the GW shoot the bear from their bait and helped him load it, I think they were the ones that got charged for transporting across state line. I'm not sure what misdemeaner chRges they were found guilty of. Maybe littering


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## rivercritter (Sep 12, 2014)

never seen real poachers get caught much less any kind of fine that deturd them from further poaching.


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## tree cutter 08 (Sep 12, 2014)

Whole thing is just a bad peach crop.


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## T.P. (Sep 13, 2014)

JustUs4All said:


> I wonder if the littering charges stuck.



I hope so. I do not like a litterbug.


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## T-N-T (Sep 13, 2014)

cklem said:


> Who knows? I don't think the cases above envolved littering. I think these were the guys that let the GW shoot the bear from their bait and helped him load it, I think they were the ones that got charged for transporting across state line. I'm not sure what misdemeaner chRges they were found guilty of. Maybe littering



I have a big problem with the GW shooting a bear illegally just to charge a guy with transporting across lines.  
He wouldnt kill a man just to charge some one with illegally dumping of a body?
Taken a little far as others have said.


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