A Montana man found himself in a grisly situation after he kept the claws of a grizzly bear that he killed in self-defense.
Bryan Berg pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegal transport of grizzly bear claws after he allegedly shot the animal in 2017 and didn’t notify authorities, according to the Flathead Beacon, a northwestern Montana news outlet.
Prosecutors say Berg, 35, cut off the claws and took them to Washington after he killed the bear in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
“I was so (expletive) mad at it because he was going to eat me, I know he was,” Berg said to investigators, records state. “So I basically said, ‘Hey, (expletive) you,’ and I cut his claws off. I did. I wanted to keep them as a memento.”
He confessed to the shooting and turned over the claws after officials interviewed him in March 2018.
Berg admitted to knowing it is against the law to take the claws. Grizzlies in northwestern Montana are considered a threatened species.
Berg went to the U.S. District Court in Missoula on Thursday. He was sentenced to three years of probation, in addition to a judge ruling he must pay $5,000 in restitution.
With News Wire Services
