Ted Nugent Agrees to Guilty Plea in Illegal Black Bear Kill
It appears Ted Nugent didn't learn his lesson (and we're not talking his comments about the Obama administration).
A couple of years after the rocker and wildlife hunter came under fire for killing a baby buck on his Outdoor Channel reality show, Nugent is in hot water again for yet another animal-slaying incident.
The Spirit of the Wild host just agreed to plead guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed in southeastern Alaska during a hunting trip, an offense that could lead to a $10,000 fine, according to the LA Times.
Nugent reportedly committed the offense while filming an episode of his show back in May 2009 on Alaska's Sukkwan Island, when he fired an arrow that wounded a bear, which scampered off alive.
The 63-year-old "Cat Scratch Fever" singer "failed to locate and harvest the wounded black bear," according to court documents filed Friday, and a few days later he shot and killed another black bear and transported it off the island.
And that's when the trouble began.
Since Nugent had already wounded one bear, it was illegal for him to kill the second animal under Alaskan hunting regulations.
So, could Nugent be facing jail time as well?
Not quite.
Although the count of transporting an illegally hunted bear does have a penalty of up to a year in prison along with a $100,000 fine, prosecutors are recommending Nugent pay a $10,000 fine, receive two years of probation, and be banned from hunting and fishing in Alaska and on any U.S. Forest Service lands for one year.
Nugent will also be made to create a 30- to 60-second public service announcement that will air every other week on his show about responsible hunting practices.
While the outspoken Nugent has yet to speak out about the plea agreement or charge, his attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, told the Anchorage Daily News the Alaskan law was "crazy."
"They've got apparently some crazy law in Southeast that says if you even touch an animal with an arrow, it becomes your animal," Ross said Friday. "He looked to see if he had hit it and didn't believe that he'd hit it fatally."
However, this isn't the first time Nugent has disobeyed "some crazy law" regarding hunting.
In 2010, Nugent pleaded no contest to killing a deer on his reality show using illegal hunting tactics.
"To my Fellow Outdoorsmen...You may have read the news that I pled no contest to two misdemeanor game violations. I should have been better informed, more aware and I take full responsibility," he wrote on his website regarding the incident. "The honorable hunting lifestyle is my deepest passion."
We wonder what he'll have to say this time.
