Shoot, Shovel & Shut up

          Your four children are outside playing when you see a mother grizzly bear and two large cubs in your yard.  The bears attack your livestock.  You yell for the children, but get no response.  Grabbing a rifle, you step onto the porch still yelling for your children.  The bears continue to attack your animals.  Where are your children?  Would you fire your rifle at one of the bears?  Jeremy Hill did and now he could go to jail.

          Hill shot the nearest cub.  He could have shot the most dangerous bear, the mother grizzly, but without a parent, the two cubs would have died.  As the mother bear and the other cub ran off, his wife Rachel reported that the children were safely in the house.  It turns out the cub he shot was merely wounded.  It got up and charged the house.  Hill shot it two more times before it died, a mere fifteen yards from the kids swing set.  Click here for a more detailed account of the incident.            

          Perhaps warning shots would have frightened the bears away, but the animal was dead and Hill now had a choice.  The 3-S method of Shoot, Shovel and Shut up is a well-known method for getting rid of protected predators that threaten family and livestock.  He could have used it to make the problem go away, but he didn’t, he did the honest thing.  He phoned Idaho Fish and Game and reported the incident.    

          Despite support for Hill from Governor Otter, Senator Mike Crapo and other members of the Idaho Congressional delegation, the U.S. Attorney for Idaho filed federal criminal charges.  Last Monday Hill pleaded not guilty to killing an animal protected by the Endangered Species Act.  He faces a year in jail and a $50,000 fine.  Win or lose Hill faces tens of thousands of dollars in legal expenses. 

          According to Rich Landers of The Spokesman Review, “The law says a wolf can be shot if it’s actively threatening pets or livestock, but no such caveat exists for shooting a grizzly.”  All the government will need to prove to send this husband and father to jail is his shot was not in defense of himself or another person. 

          Living in the rural west means living close to nature.  Deer live in the woods and meadows of my property and are a common sight.  I’ve never seen a grizzly bear, but three times I’ve crossed paths with black bears.  The last time I was walking with my two young sons.  Fortunately, the animal showed little interest and we were able to move away.  The injustice now reigning down on Jeremy Hill has not changed my mind, if I thought my children were threatened I would shoot.  What I suspect that many of us have learned from this incident is, if we are ever in similar circumstances, Shoot, Shovel and Shut up.