Photo Copyright Jim Robertson
Everett Skunkcap, of Browning, showed no apparent remorse for allegedly shooting three grizzly bears Aug. 6, reportedly telling Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife investigators that last year he shot another grizzly bear and if “any grizzlies were on his property he would shoot them again,” according to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case Nov. 5. “Skunkcap was instructed to call the (Fish and Wildlife) office if there were bear management issues” but “Skunkcap responded that he would just shoot them anyway.”
Grizzly bears are a federally protected species, listed as threatened.
Investigators reported that one of the bears, a female, was approximately 17 years old and the other two were about a year and a half old.
Skunkcap took an investigator to the site where he allegedly shot the bears and said he shot the “mother grizzly” first and then shot one of the young bears. The third bear, he said, ran after he shot the first two but returned an hour later and “stood over the two dead grizzlies.” Skunkcap told the investigator that he “figured this grizzly was going to ‘raise hell’ later that night” so he “’might as well do away with it as well.”
Skunkcap told investigators he was alerted to the bears by his dogs at around 10 a.m. and when he spotted them they were walking in the direction of his three grandchildren. He said the bears were about 300 feet from the children. He said the bears were not running and his grandchildren ran into the house. “Skunkcap admitted that all the kids were in the house when he shot the third grizzly.”
Skunkcap reportedly asked if he would get the grizzlies back following the investigation as he wanted to “tan them and put them up on the wall … as a souvenir of what he did.”
Skunkcap was charged with three counts of unlawful taking of a threatened species, each count punishable by up to six months in prison and a maximum $25,000 fine.
Exposing the Big Game 
Seriously? Who is this psycho pervert? In a case like this, the 3-strikes law would be real handy and real appropriate. What a monster!
I wish the bears HAD eaten the three grandchildren, then at least there would be fewer degenerate Skunkcap genes out there threatening to further pollute the genetic pool. He’ll probably get off with a slap on the wrist because he “didn’t know” he was doing anything wrong, just like the rhino poachers from Georgia purportedly didn’t know. Ignorance is now the all-purpose PC excuse for everything, unless of course one were to understandably mistake a hunter in the woods for a bloodthirsty, psychopathic terrorist and blow him away.
Thanks, Geoff for your comments. Unfortunately, these killers rarely get any real punishment for their crimes–as you said, “just a slap on the wrist.” Laws (even those weak excuses for wildlife protection) mean nothing to these folk. They live by the gun, and killing animals gives meaning to their meaningless lives.
I can’t stand you Geoff but you are funny.
I love you too, Denderah.
Well, they say laughter is the highest complement… Geoff is the most dedicated crusader for animal rights, so I suppose he’s bound to make a few enemies.
Well, hopefully the old bastard will get some prison time. But just think if these bears had been delisted.
Grizzly, Wolf, Mountain Lions Hunter Management
It would be best for wildlife ecological systems if “wildlife managers” would not rush to manage a predator, such as the grizzly, as soon as it is de-listed as they have mistakenly done with the wolf, and mistakenly “managed” lion, coyote, and wolverine. Wildlife managers have had this absurd idea for over 100 years that predators need to be managed so that man can kill more elk, deer, pronghorn, etc. and keep their numbers down for hunters and “managed” for ranchers. Predators will manage their own populations and research demonstrates that they are a positive impact on total ecological systems, flora and fauna, unlike man. There is not any proof that predators harm ungulate populations in a significant way that interferes with mans’ “sport” killing of those animals. It is a long held non-scientific assumption by hunters, ranchers, and the wildlife agencies that serve those groups. There is no proof that the predators need to be managed, other than particular problem animals. Man is usually the problem of any decline in hunted game along with weather and disease and loss of habitat. Humans create more problems than they, the wildlife agencies and hunters, solve. It is actually man that most needs to be managed. Over hunting and over fishing have most harmed animal populations driving some to extinction and many others to the edge. What a perverse idea that man puts man at the top of ecological systems now that we are no longer a real part of it for subsistence purposes. If some of us primitives still have to hunt, do so with a minimal impact, footprint, on total ecological systems. As for the barbarism of trapping by the public, let’s end it. Wildlife agencies should be trying to preserve total ecological systems not create artificial imbalance. This is a last best place in large part because Montana and some neighboring states harbor the last vestiges in the continental USA of a total ecological wilderness of flora and fauna. Along with that balance comes some encounters with apex animals. A major problem is that the wildlife agencies have from the beginning thought of themselves as working for sportsmen and ranchers and therefore marginalize the predators. The wildlife agencies see their primary tool as killing. Well, if you only have a hammer then every problem is a nail. If you primarily exist to serve ranchers and sportsmen then animals, particularly predators, are secondary. If state wildlife hunting fees are driving your agency and your primary customers are sportsmen and ranchers, you will listen to their hysterics, their anecdotal opinions. People come to Montana and surrounding mountain states for the scenery and the wildlife, not to see fences and cattle. Much of the land we are talking about is public land, and that means USA land and USA wildlife, not just Montanans’ or another state’s private domain. The tourism business is huge. Maybe we should look at finding ways to tap into it instead of reliance on hunting fees for wildlife protection. Maybe we should start retiring some of the 772 national forests allotments in Montana and the 3776 BLM land allotments in Montana from ranching and farming, and the 26,000 allotments in 16 western states.
I am not an enemy to a dedicated animal crusader. I do not like the hateful words as funny as Geoff can be at times. The inflated rhetoric does not do anything positive for the vegan movement. I am convinced Geoff has not taken the simple step to veganism. Be that as it may…all the best to you people.