Page 30 - Wyoming's Grizzly Harvest - The Story the State Wants to Bury with the Bears

Wyoming’s Grizzly Harvest been aided by Dan Thompson, who appeared as a character witness for his underling. It was with Thompson that Ellsbury had first seen the “nice black bear” that morphed into a dead grizzly, and the department’s Large Carnivore Section Supervisor made sure to tell the court of Ellsbury’s remorse. “It was basically because of the nature of the incident, and that we hold our people to a higher level of standard,” was Thompson’s assessment of WGFD’s internal sanction of Ellsbury after he killed the grizzly. An observer could be forgiven for assuming that Ellsbury’s punishment would be in excess of a two-week suspension without pay and a letter placed in his permanent file, but it wasn’t. Regardless of the state’s dollar value on a grizzly, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department didn’t find this one to be worth more than giving one of their avid hunters a fortnight’s unpaid leave at the start of hunting season, and an opportunity to watch MLB’s race for October without having to worry about getting up for work. “I don’t think you are a bad or evil person,” Judge Waters reassured Ellsbury in his summation. “This is difficult for you, I understand that. It’s no fun for anybody else in here, either,” the judge continued. “Difficult” it may have been, but 30