Hunting Accident: Recreational Hunter Dies After Falling Bear
A man from Virginia died after a bear shot by his hunting partner fell on him from a tree.
The bizarre accidental death occurred on 9 December in Lunenburg County, located between Richmond and Danville, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources announced in a statement.
A hunting group was pursuing the bear as it climbed up the tree, according to the authority. As the group retreated from the tree, one recreational hunter shot the bear. The animal fell onto another recreational hunter who was standing approximately 3 metres from the base of the tree.
Victim Later Succumbed to His Injuries
A member of the group administered first aid before Harvey was transported to two different hospitals. He succumbed to his injuries on Friday, the wildlife authority reported.
An obituary for Harvey, a married father of five children and eight grandchildren, described him as a self-employed building contractor and avid nature lover.
Similar Incidents in Recent Years
Similar incidents have occurred in recent years.
In 2018, a man in Alaska was critically injured after his hunting partner shot a bear on a ridge. The animal tumbled down a slope and struck the man, who was also hit by rocks dislodged by the bear.
Another man was injured in 2019 after his hunting partner shot a bear in a tree in North Carolina. The bear fell from the tree and began biting the recreational hunter, whereupon the man and the animal fell off a cliff. The recreational hunter was taken to a hospital, while the bear was later found dead.
Such incidents reveal the unpredictable dangers of recreational hunting – not only for the animals, but also for the recreational hunters themselves.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
