Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Game Commission: Instead of summoning game officers, pair killed bear in their yard.
A father and son in Mountain Top have been charged with a misdemeanor offense of illegal shooting and killing of a black bear collared with a tracking device that came into their yard.
A state Game Commission law enforcement supervisor said Monday that the case was one in which the defendants opted to kill the bear instead of summoning game officers.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, on June 9 at 8 a.m., Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer Dave Allen was contacted by Fairview Township police to respond to 47 Lehigh St. for a dead bear in a yard. Police said that Hondo Nobel, 60, shot the bear with rubber buckshot and it died.
Allen found the bear – a 291-pound male – lying in shrubs and discovered damaged limbs on a small tree near the bear and blood droplets on the shrubs. Nobel told Allen that he had shot the bear with rubber buckshot, it died and he provided an empty shot shell, according to the affidavit. Nobel said he shot the bear from the road in front of his house, the affidavit said.
Allen discovered numerous pellet holes on the left side of the bear toward the left hip, which wasn’t consistent with the number of pellets in rubber buckshot. He questioned Nobel, who stated that at 7 a.m. he heard a commotion and his son, Erik, 21, indicated there was a bear in the yard.
Hondo Nobel said he went outside and shot the bear with rubber buckshot, according to the affidavit, and told his son to go to work.
Allen also questioned Erik Nobel, who said he tied his dog on a chain in the yard and went back into the house. Erik Nobel said he heard the dog barking, went outside and saw the bear before going back into the house to get a 16-gauge shotgun.
Erik Nobel then went back outside, pulled the dog toward the house, loaded the gun with what he thought was rubber buckshot and shot the bear as it was coming toward him, according to the affidavit. The bear then ran to the left of the house and Erik Nobel reloaded the shotgun, at which time he realized he didn’t use rubber buckshot.
In a written statement, according to the affidavit, Hondo Nobel indicated he was aware that his son had shot the bear first and he went outside and shot at it with rubber buckshot to get it to leave. Erik Nobel stated he shot the bear with a 16-gauge shotgun, even though the shotgun that had the rubber buckshot in it was a 12 gauge.
Hondo and Erik Nobel could not be reached for comment. They were both charged with killing a black bear during a closed season, which is a misdemeanor, and face a five-year revocation of their hunting licenses, maximum fines of $3,000 and up to six months in jail. The charges were filed at District Judge Ronald Swank’s office in Wright Township last week.
Game Commission law enforcement supervisor Dan Figured said the shell in the 16-gauge shotgun contained number four shot. The bear was lying in the yard wounded when Hondo Nobel shot at it with rubber buckshot from a 12-gauge shotgun, Figured said.
Figured added the bear wasn’t acting in an aggressive or threatening manner and it was part of the agency’s urban bear study, meaning it was fitted with a collar containing a GPS tracking device.
The incident is the third case involving an illegally killed bear in the region since June.
On June 2 in Northumberland County, two individuals were charged with shooting a bear that had wandered nearby. The pair claim they shot the bear in self-defense.
In Monroe County this summer, Figured said an individual is facing charges after shooting and killing a bear with a rifle behind his house.
Figured said the bears in all three cases weren’t acting in a threatening manner.
“In the Northumberland case the individual said he wanted to rid his neighborhood of the bear,” Figured said. “These are cases where the people had other options – go back inside and call us. But they decided to just kill the bears.”