A coastal brown bear in Alaska. (Image courtesy NPS / Kevyn Jalone)
Two Montana men were indicted last month by a federal grand jury in Alaska on counts related to their illegal killing and transport of a brown bear on a national wildlife refuge in May 2022.
Richard McAtee, 46, and Arlon Franz, 51, were indicted by the U.S. District Court of Alaska grand jury on July 17 on one count of conspiracy and two counts of violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits trafficking of unlawfully taken wildlife.
According to their indictment and a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Alaska, the killing and transportation of the bear happened between May 9 and May 12, 2022.
One of the men – the indictment does not specify which – was hunting as a nonresident without a contract with a master guide, which is illegal in Alaska, according to the release.
They shot the brown bear in the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge before the legal season had opened and on the same day he had been in a plane – all violations of state and federal laws, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.