From the Roanoke Times
Saturday, November 10, 2001
Moneta man encounters 200-pound bear amid his prize bulls
Farmer fells black bear, decries warden's charge
A game warden said Shannon Simmons was illegally hunting Wednesday. "I don't hunt in barns," Simmons said.
By JAY CONLEY
THE ROANOKE TIMES
MONETA - Any farmer would do the same thing if a wild animal were threatening his livestock, Shannon Simmons said. About 6 p.m. Wednesday, he grabbed his muzzleloader and shot a nearly 200-pound black bear cornered in a barn with nine prize black bulls on the JOCO Farm.
He can't believe he's being charged with hunting a bear out of season. The bulls are valued at about $2,000 each, Simmons said. But as much as he wanted to protect them, he said he wanted to protect himself, too. As the farm's manager, Simmons, 28, lives near the barn with his wife and three children.
"I was in fear of my life and my family's," Simmons said. "What if my 4-year-old son had walked in there before I did?"
Simmons went to the barn after his wife told him the bulls were going crazy. When he walked into the barn, he saw the big black bear cornered in the pen, gnashing its teeth. The bulls were bellowing and kicking up dirt.
"He was chomping his teeth like a maniac," Simmons said of the bear Friday. "I could hear his jaw popping."
The first shot hit the bear's chest and brought it to the ground, but didn't kill it. "It was just suffering, and I knew I had to put it out of its misery, but I was shaking so bad, I couldn't even get my muzzleloader reloaded," Simmons said.
He called to his wife to bring him his other rifle and finished the job, then dragged the bear out of the pen and into his truck bed because the smell of blood was agitating the bulls, he said.
Simmons then called some friends and fellow hunters and asked them what he should do. They told him to call the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, which he did. The sheriff's office notified the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which sent a game warden to the farm.
Simmons was expecting at least faint praise for doing away with a dangerous animal. Instead, he was issued the citation and his guns were confiscated. He faces up to a $1,000 fine and the loss of his hunting license when he goes to Bedford County General District Court on Dec. 13.
"It's just a wrongful charge. I don't hunt in barns," Simmons said Friday.
D.K. Neel, the game warden who wrote the citation, was off duty Friday, but Lt. Dennis Mullins, Neel's supervisor, said the issue is more than a little complicated.
For starters, Mullins said, when people see evidence of wild animals doing damage to their property or livestock, they are required to notify the game department and let the game wardens handle the situation.
And although Simmons said his life was endangered, Mullins said that is hard to prove now, because the bear was moved from where it was shot. Mullins also said it may be impossible to prove whether the bear was cornered or could have escaped on its own.
Simmons said that when Neel arrived, there was still a large bloodstain in the pen where the bear fell but that Neel never collected any evidence or took any pictures of the pen. Simmons said another game warden collected evidence Thursday.
Mullins said he thought it was suspicious that Simmons waited such a long time after shooting the bear before calling the authorities. Simmons said he waited an hour, but only because it took that long to collect himself.
"It took 20 minutes just for my legs to stop shaking," he said. "Everyone I've talked to since that night thinks I did the right thing."
Mullins said the bear will be examined to determine, among other things, if it was malnourished and possibly entered the barn looking for food.
"We don't want to be down on the fellow who shot it. But we want to do the right thing," Mullins said.