A father-and-son pair have been sentenced in Alaska after pleading guilty last fall to killing a black bear and her two newborn cubs inside of their den.
Andrew Renner, 41, was convicted on eight charges related to illegal bear poaching and must forfeit property related to the crime, including his pickup truck and boat. The District Court for the State of Alaska in Anchorage also suspended his hunting license for ten years, ordered him to pay a $9,000 fine, and sentenced him to three months in jail.
Renner’s 18-year-old son, Owen, was given a 30-day suspended jail sentence, along with community service. His hunting license was suspended for two years and he must also take a hunting safety course.
Both of the men were ordered to pay $1,800 in restitution. In addition to illegal bear poaching, their charges also include unlawful trophy possession and falsification of the sealing certificate.
The convictions are part of a plea bargain the men took after trying to cover up their crime, which was captured last April by a motion-activated game camera placed at the entrance of the den by the U.S. Forest Service. Troopers recovered footage from the camera, which was part of a government study on the bears.
As the sow and her cubs slept in their den on Esther Island in Prince William Sound, Owen Renner fired two bullets into the mother’s head. Andrew Renner then shot the frightened, shrieking cubs to death at close range.
After killing the sow, the pair noticed she was wearing a tracking collar and removed it. Owen Renner was heard on video saying “they’ll never be able to link it to us.” They then butchered the sow, bagged some of the meat, and fled the scene.
Two days later, they were captured on camera removing the cub carcasses. Authorities never recovered the bodies.
On April 30, Andrew Renner brought the sow’s body to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, claiming it was a legal kill and that no cubs were seen. He also took credit for the kill, failing to mention his son’s involvement in the act.
In a statement, Assistant Attorney General Aaron Peterson referred to the crime as “the most egregious bear cub poaching case his office has ever seen.”
Peaceful and family friendly?? Then no comment
in a jail wirth this terrible humans
Horrific cruelty.
Makes me ashamed to be a human being.
Two disgusting scum I hope they rot in hell.
They should have been sent down for at least ten years each and they should have had their guns removed for life. It was so brave of them to MURDER an innocent animal while it was asleep.
How many year will they stay in prison ? Hope they’ll have a hell of a life.
Why on earth did they kill that brown bear and her cubs ? This is just horrible.
How many years will they stay in prison ? Hope they’ll have a hell of a life.
Why on earth did they kill that mummy brown bear and her two cubs ?
They never should get close to animals again and no more guns.
que bien por fin recibirán su merecido para que aprendan que a los animales hay que protegerlos
JUSTICE!!!!
They are both very evil human beings I hope they can never hunt again,
Unfortunately, it’s not a crime for a serial killer of animals to indoctrinate their children to like-minded evil behavior, but it should be!
This father and son team are disgusting human beings. they both should have gotten longer prison sentences. Cowards….murdered a mom and her cubs while they slept in their den. There is a place in hell for people like them. Rest in peace moma and your babies ;(
Animals have rights!
Animal Abusers Exposed. If You Hurt an Animal I Will Tell The World About You Here.
“Your intuition suggests something isn’t right but you’re not sure what it is. It is not until the aftermath that you can see clearly and realize that true life can be more terrifying than a horror movie, that monsters are real and evil preys on the innocent.”
– unknown
I am no longer accepting things I cannot change, I am changing things I cannot accept!
We are all born with compassion RECLAIM YOURS!
For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beast; for all is vanity.
– Ecclesiastes 3:19
“We will never know true happiness until we learn compassion for all living things.”
– Dali Lahma
“Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.”
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”
– Abraham Lincoln
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
“To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime.” (v)
– Romain Rolland, Nobel Prize Literature 1915
“Stand still, close your eyes and listen; in the silence you can hear the cries of pain and low moans of anguish of animals waiting to die… do everything you can even if today it is just one small thing.”
“What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.”
– Chief Seattle
“Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is…whether its victim is human or animal…we cannot expect things to be much better in this world…We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity.”
– Rachel Carson
“If only we can overcome cruelty, to human and animal, with love and compassion we shall stand at the threshold of a new era in human moral and spiritual evolution – and realize, at last, our most unique quality: humanity.”
– Jane Goodall
“The Greatness of a Nation and its Moral Progress can be Judged by the way its Animals are Treated!”
– Mahatma Gandhi
I feel so sad for the living, breathing, feeling animals that have suffered at the hands of men. I feel such anger and even hatred towards those men who would inflict such pain and suffering on an animal that wants only to love and be loved. My mind cannot comprehend such behavior, such lack of compassion. I wonder what goes on in the mind of such sick people who torture, neglect, abuse and fight animals with no sympathy or compassion for what they are doing. I do know that I feel our country has totally inadequate cruelty, abuse and neglect laws to help protect our animals. Even the states with the toughest laws could make tougher ones.
No animal cruelty law should be less than a major felony. No neglect law should be less than a minor felony, at the least. And people caught fighting animals should be locked up for life.
Excellent comment. I have copied and pasted all of it for future reference. Thank you.
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Eleanor labrozzi….YOUR COMMENT WAS WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!! I absolutely love it. I so feel the same as all those people you recited from. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you for posting that. Now if only all the animal abusers could read this, then drop off the face of the earth, that would be great. We should put things like this up in billboards instead of the crap they display now which everyone ignores, anyway. Thank you.
I hope they both have nothing but misery, pain and suffering every moment of their sorry ass lives.
what a piece of trash raising a piece of trash son ! what kind of monster kills a mother bear and then her 2 innocent screaming babies ? I commend the judge for giving a stiffer penalty than we are use to seeing !
Good FUCKING SCUMBAGS I hope their raped and beaten while their in there!!!
SoSo pleased the Renners were caught and punished.
Monsters!
These POSs need to be locked up for longer than 3 months. They are worthless, deceitful, greedy humans (if they can even be classified as such). There is absolutely no excuse for killing an innocent animal with babies.
Keep them in jail so they won’t hurt and kill animals again. These people are nuts.
The penalties are not severe enough to discourage lowlifes like these two from committing these kinds of cruel and heinous crimes. And I don’t think that a hunting safety course is going to cure the son of his basic mental disorder; he is a chip off the old block and simply emulates what he sees in his pathetic excuse for a father. These kinds of people just never seem to “get” why their behavior is so abhorrent as they are completely lacking in compassion and empathy for animals, and sometimes even people who aren’t close to them. It is disheartening.
I would comment what I really think about this man, and sadly, the 18 year old boy (although legally responsible for his actions, he is NOT yet a man – I have an 18 year old, and trust me, he is not quite yet a grown man) who is being taught his father’s moral compass…
…but it says “keep comments peaceful and family friendly.”
Guys like this don’t deserve hunting license’s. Should have been a lifetime ban for both. 3 Bears sleeping peacefully, mom and 2 babies were slaughtered for their ego, no more. This is so not right! I’m glad they had fines to pay and lost his truck, boat, guns too I hope. Jail time for the Dad, none for the son, he killed 2 babies scared and crying for their mom with no regards to anything, except what his Dad taught him to do. Community service isn’t going to change this young guy. He’s been trained for 18 yrs to kill animals is just fine, just don’t get caught. No I think he needs a much harsher punishment than he got, Dad needs longer in jail too. It’s murder, not just a kill that went bad for them. Bear cubs posed no threat to them, why kill them? These 2 need more punishment than they got, especially the 18 yr.old!
DISGUSTING!!! These evil pieces of trash got away with murder, especially the bastard son!! When are animals lives going to matter??!! Both of them should be shot and killed!!! We need to set examples and not allow these asses to get away with this crap!!! And we dont want these losers breeding more trash!!! Get them off the planet!!! Make animal abusers extinct!!! I hate them!!! You cant rehab this!! They will do this again and next will be a human!!!…and you just might know them!…stop them now!!!
The 18 year old got completely away with MURDER. There. Is that ” Family Friendly ”
enough for you ?
This crime is so outrageously sickening and cruel it is impossible to keep comments peaceful and family friendly.
After all that effort of lying, killing, and downright heartless cruelty, that’s all the son gets? Suspended 30-day jail sentence and community service? IT FIGURES…..VERY TYPICAL OF THE SO-CALLED JUSTICE SYSTEM. Yeah that’s really a punishment that fits the crime and what do you mean a hunting safety course. What the hell does that have to do with being a heartless, cruel piece of crap that has no regard for a living creature. Will that safety course teach him not to enter a cave and intentionally kill a mother and her cubs? Will it teach him not cover it up and lie about it? I keep saying it and I will say it til I am blue in the face…..THE LAWS STINK! Lawmakers are the main pariah’s of our societies that are constantly enabling morons like that to keep committing horraneous crimes against all living creatures. It truly enrages and disgusts me that we are getting no where with these punks because the laws are always going to treat them with kid gloves. The law system does just a little slap on the wrist to try to make the public think they are doing something about it. Who do you think you are kidding. All the public can see and know, that laws don’t take these crimes seriously. It was a start to bring them up on charges but more drastic measures should have been taken. I can assure you that 30-day suspended sentence and a gun safety course is not going to mean a hill of beans to those people and people like them and it is not going to accomplish anything as far as them knowing it was wrong to do and not to do it again. They will just lay low until they find another right time to try it again, knowing that if they are caught, the law will not severely punish their actions. Poor animals of this earth. My heart breaks for them. It will never end for them and I will be reading and signing yet another petition.
This vile and evl animal torturing monster Andrew Renner and his vile and evil Son must be jailed for life. Their punishment was not hard enough and is an absolute disgrace. If I could get to these two animal torturing and murdering monsters they would be 6 foot under.
That evil monster kid Owen what the hell will this monster commit against the precious Wildlife when he is allowed to start his sadism and evilness against of the precious Wildlife. The death penatlty is a must to his rotten lowlife father and this lowlife monster of a kid Owen.
Absolutely sickening and unforgivable.
This is sadism and evilness at its worst.
RIP mummy Bear and your precious little babies.
All these Wildlife killing Hunters should all be put to death. This is the only way we can protect the precious Wildlife from extinction by these lowlife Hunting monsters.
And so they should be disgusting shooting bears in their den. Real heroes
The guys who killed the bears deserve mor jail time!
YAHOOOOOOOO!!!!! About time abusers get the punishment they deserve.
This is so sad for bears but so glad they will be jailed They really think Karna will not attack them.The bears were just trying to live their lives peacefully and yet these scumbags robbed their valued precious lives.These bears are more loving and compassionate then these disgusting white scumbags ever will be.They need to learn a lesson on love and respect all things regardless of if they are a bear or another creature.This will send a strong message that those who hunt animals will be caught and jailed.Lets hope they rot in hell.Rest in peace bears and he’ll is waiting for them.
These two unscrupulousness hunters give hunters a bad name. They knew from the start that this was illegal yet they murdered a Mama bear and her two babies for nothing. These three bears held no worth to these two scum bags. WHAT THEY GOT IN PENALTIES WAS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN FOR THEIR DIRTY DEEDS.
RIP POOR BEARS AND WE ARE SO GLAD THAT THESE TWO WERE PUNISHED EVEN THOUGH WE THE PUBLIC WISH THEY WOULD HAVE GOTTEN A MORE SEVERE PUNISHMENT! THEY SHOULD HAVE LOST THEIR LICENSES FOR LIFE FOR BOTH OF THEM !! THIS WOULD HAVE MADE SURE THAT THIS KIND OF HORRIFIC ILLEGAL SLAUGHTER OF WILDLIFE WOULD STOP.
Rot in jail you pieces of shit!
Peaceful and family friendly, huh? What these cretins did to that helpless mother bear and her cubs is extremely disturbing. They should both be undergoing psychiatric treatment AT THEIR EXPENSE! What sick individuals we have in our society and many are right there in the hunting community. Subsistence hunting is one thing, these two are just plain evil and if I could have sentenced them, they’d be spending the rest of their worthless lives in prison!
Peaceful and family friendly, huh? What these cretins did to that helpless mother bear and her cubs is extremely disturbing. They should both be undergoing psychiatric treatment AT THEIR EXPENSE! What sick individuals we have in our society and many are right there in the hunting community. Subsistence hunting is one thing, these two are just plain evil and if I could have sentenced them, they’d be spending the rest of their worthless lives in prison!
Peaceful and family friendly, huh? What these cretins did to that helpless mother bear and her cubs is extremely disturbing. They should both be undergoing psychiatric treatment AT THEIR EXPENSE! What sick individuals we have in our society and many are right there in the hunting community. Subsistence hunting is one thing, these two are just plain evil and if I could have sentenced them, they’d be spending the rest of their worthless lives in prison!
And the boy only got his hunting license taken away for two years!!! This state has got a problem. These two are the dredge of the Earth. They killed, they lied, and have no remorse. They both should be in jail, not just the father. The son sure did not have a good role model.
I agree-the son should have a long jail sentence and community service for 5-7 years-picking up litter and cleaning public bathrooms., They should also both lose their hunting licenses for LIFE!!
I guess didnt think killing the bear and cub was very serious, since the punishment was so trivial. These two should never be allowed to hunt again, and jail time was so minimum, guess justice is blind, and uncaring.
GLAD to hear that these CRETON, LOWLIFE, SADISTIC CREEPS will get jail time and suffer loses too. I think the son needs to stay in jail a bit longer though to TRULY teach him how disgusting this act was! Would bench if Karma came around and got THEM while THEY were sleeping in the COMFORT of their OWN HOME-MINDING THEIR OWN BUSINESS!!!! Would be AWESOME! GOD will judge them on how they treat HIS creatures and there is a SPECIAL place in HELL for evil morons like these 2!
That is why these cretins keep doing this! The sentences are very light! Three lives were taken! They should have both been EXECUTED!
Happy they have been punished!
Nowhere near long enough. The youth should have had a custodial sentence to persuade him not to emulate his low life father.
how do you keep comments peaceful and friendly when the act was just plain cruelty and never should have happened. Sentence was good they deserve every last bit of it and for the father to drag son into his abusive reality is such a shame. But the son was old enough to know better and was a willing participant. He’s just as guilty getting off to a wrong start.
Hunting license suspended for 10 years and the other 2 ????? How about forever. Cruel imbeciles.
Compared to damage done, very little punishment. I hope the father will serve his time with the most vicious criminals. Maybe they will do the right thing and kill this piece of trash useless to G-d and to men. Please remember, the justice still can be served, if we only have the will to do so. Three precious animal lives were taken away for no reason, both of the criminals shall pay the RIGHT price.
I agree that very little punishment was meted out in this case to these creeps. These 2 will likely repeat their offenses. Especially the son who has learned that he can get away with a slap on the wrist. It is heartbreaking to have lost the mother bear and her cubs.
There are many in prison that will never get out so what is one more notch on their belt or such? Yeah, there may be a chance that this reprobate will at least get a sound and brain damaging beating but if he is offed, there is a chance for that too. Let justice hammer down on this POS.