Woman sentenced to jail for freeing crying bear cub from trap in New Jersey
A judge sentenced a woman to 15 days in jail for freeing a crying cub from a bear trap.
- 1 | 6
Municipal Court Judge James Devine sentenced Catherine McCartney, 50, on Thursday, NJ.com reported. McCartney, who has a record of arrests related to bear hunt protests, pleaded guilty to obstructing "the administration of law and the prevention of the lawful taking of wildlife".
- 2 | 6
McCartney, a dedicated animal rights activist, plans to appeal the sentence, relating to the incident in in Vernon, New Jersey.
- 3 | 6
In a statement she read in court, McCartney said she did not regret her decision in rescuing the bear cub from the painful trap.
- 4 | 6
"These animals are innocent and so I made the moral decision to let the bear go so he could run back to his mother, and it was the right thing to do," she said.
- 5 | 6
The incident in question took place in October in a condominium complex. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said it installed two culvert traps inside the complex campus to capture a bear—known as "Momma Bear" by activists—following two incidents with residents. None of these incidents resulted in injury.
- 6 | 6
Mark Nagelhout, who helped McCartney free the cub, also plead guilty to the same charges. However, he did not receive a jail sentence since this was his first offence.Both defendants were also fined $1,316.
