Misdemeanor charge filed in dead bear case
A South Shore man is scheduled to be arraigned next month in the July 9 shooting death of a bear.
Gilbert Wetenkamp faces one misdemeanor count of unlawful taking of an animal. This is a violation under the state Fish and Wildlife code. The maximum penalty if convicted is one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
The 2½-year-old bear was shot in the backside with buckshot from a shotgun. It was sprawled on its back at the base of a tree off Pioneer Trail near Minniconjou Drive in the unincorporated area of South Lake Tahoe.
Wetenkamp originally told investigators he shot the bear in self-defense.
The Sept. 25 hearing will be before Judge Steve Bailey in El Dorado County Superior Court in South Lake Tahoe.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Give this hunter the max If not it will happen again and again,
What about discharging a firearm in a residential zone?
If you can’t deal with Tahoe’s environment, don’t live here Mr. Scrooge! There are plenty of nice gated suburbs available for you.
A MISDAMEANOR – An animal’s life is worth a misdemeanor. He KILLED a living thing for no reason as it was walking away. He shot it right in the back! Wow, that is the best you can give this killer. What next, when it happens again and again and again because now people know it is just a misdemeanor. Set an example for our community that they just cannot go around and shoot animals because they are pissed off. That is a sad sentence and you are not showing our community that our wildlife in the Tahoe Basin is protected as the Bear League states. Make him volunteer at the Wildlife Center, make him do community service, make him pay for his wrong – A misdemeanor. What happens if he would have shot a child or a passerby! A firearm in a residential area!
Is that all a bear’s life is worth, $1000 and 1 year behind bars?
This would be a good time for the DA to start trumping up charges.
Gilbert Wetenkamp, out there somewhere is a big ol’ Karma kiss coming your way. I pray that it is painful and unforgiving. You had better look over your shoulders a lot. I guarantee you’ll never see it coming.
OsoGrande(great screen name for this thread!)….invoking the terms of another’s Karma is usually bad juju…perhaps their Soul’s have history, and a contract they are fulfilling. Gilbert could be the Judas to the Bear’s Jesus. It’s a strange universe we inhabit..and rather messy sometimes.
Oso: You’d better choose your words carefully. This appears to be a threat on your part, hiding under Karma.
It may seem to be a light sentence, but it was always a misdemeanor. If you want stricter punishment, change the law. You can’t change it after the fact. But, where is the line drawn? If a child shoots a chipmunk with a b-b gun, is he charged with a felony? I too am very sad for the loss of this beautiful creature. OsoGrande, you sound like you are making threats against this man. Don’t forget, harming him IS a felony!
Mr Wetenkamp I do feel you should be held responsible for your actions, but I have one question for you:
What can I do to help you bear proof your house and show you how to live in coexistence with our Tahoe wildlife?
And I ask that in total sincerity.
Why the huf over one bear while the massacre of kings beach beavers is state funded. Oh yea no one cared when they where drowned.
Besides the obvious issue of him being shot while he attempting to run away …another aspect of this that bothers me is the statement that the bear was shot “in the backside with buckshot” which tells me he more than likely was not killed instantly but suffered a painful death. Nasty thing to do, I don’t care how old this guy is.
Not self defense. He went safely INSIDE to retrieve his gun and CHOSE to go outside and kill. People need to stop luring animals (i.e. pet food in the garage), then complaining about “property damage”. It is an honor and a rarity to see a bear. If there is one lingering about your house, then think about what you are doing to attract it.
It clearly is an error to anthropomorphize bears. They are NOT cute cuddly pets, they are not human, they are potentially dangerous wild animals.
You people do realize that there are bear hunting seasons? Where you can buy a license to go kill one. And you don’t have to drive to Canada or Alaska to do this.
I am not a hunter, and have had only a torn screen in over 30 years of living in the Tahoe woods because we are careful with trash etc. It is inevitable that we will suffer damage at some point as long as bears are loose in the woods. I am OK with that, will take that risk.
Still, there are bears who will not give up, just as there are human criminals willing to break into your homes to steal.
So called “rogue” bears who are known to be chronic house breakers will not stop.
We already know relocating them is not effective….they come back to what is familiar. These are criminal bears. They are looking for the easy life, not to work, just like many human criminals.
These criminal bears need to be jailed or destroyed before they do in fact hurt or kill a human. (Same treatment as human criminals get, right?) What is wrong with this?
In my neighborhood, 2 neighbors have had their reinforced doors repeatedly destroyed by bears, clearly with no garbage or unadvised behavior associated with the break ins.
The bears target was the cabinets and the refrigerators. Obviously learned behavior.
Bears cannot really “unlearn” how to get free food, and they will not stop once they realize this.
Therefore there needs to be a way to eliminate repeat offenders from the local bear population, before they totally loose fear of humans and begin to see humans as food.
If our bears were brown bears (Grizzly Bears),which are carnivores, and were taking dogs, cats, horses,cows, deer, kids, and people to eat, you all would be begging the Fish and Game to kill them.
The Anchorage, Alaska area has brown bears who do generally take and devour a person or two a year, and there are zero problems with killing these bears.
There needs to be a different attitude about problem bears along with attention to not attracting bears by creating attractive food sources.
Berating a victim of bear violence is a childish act,and not a solution. There is evidence that the fear of persecution by the “pro bear at any cost group” kept this gentleman from working within the system to resolve his problem. While he made some mistakes, he obviously had a real issue and deserves some consideration.
misdemeanor for taking a life? That sounds like Alabama or Mississippi not a forward thinking state like California. You have disappointed me greatly. Perhaps you should rethink the charge.
Cranky Gerald,Please I ask again ,Please tell me when a bear in Lake Tahoe ever killed anyone ?Just one please ? back it up .