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Rancher recalls close brush with grizzly MEETEETSE, Wyo. (AP) – Albert Renner had just finished a long day of field work and was sitting on the top step of his porch relaxing. That was when a grizzly bear ambled around the corner of his ranch home south of Meeteetse and approached to within 15 feet. “When I saw the bear, I ran to my front door,” he told the Cody Enterprise. “The bear came up on my porch and my dog took after him.” Renner, 31, recently recounted the harrowing May 4 experience after learning he would face no charges for killing the bear. The bear trailed after him and closed to within 6 feet as he went into the house to grab his rifle, Renner said. When he came back out, he saw the grizzly about 30 yards away engaged in a standoff with Jasper, his 3-year-old female border collie. “That lasted three to five minutes,” Renner said. “The bear was jumping and swiping his paws at my dog.” Acting mostly to protect his dog but also his own life, Renner fired one shot into the bear’s neck, killing it. Two hunters who mistakenly killed grizzly bears this spring near Cody and Thermopolis each paid a $770 fine, but federal investigators concluded the shooting by Renner was a justified act of self-defense. Wildlife managers had captured the 4-year-old male at least twice before and most recently moved it to an area near Dubois after it broke into beehives on the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody last year. Renner said he is not opposed to federal grizzly bear recovery efforts and does not feel good about shooting the animal. But given the same circumstances, he would have acted the same, he said. “If I saw one on a mountain a half-mile away, I wouldn’t shoot it,” he said. “I just don’t want one on my private property and on my front porch.” Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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