Killing of bear kept as pet upsets owner

TEUTOPOLIS, Ill. -- Valentine Wente has lived near this Southern Illinois community all of his life, and no one has messed with the exotic animals he sometimes keeps.

Not until someone killed Boo-Boo, his young pet black bear, that is.

Wente, 42, suspects the killer parked along a rural country road, then walked about 100 feet onto his property before shooting the nearly 3-year-old, 300-pound male bear several times at point-blank range with a .380-caliber rifle.

The bear was in a pen next to Wente's mobile home when it was shot late last month while Wente was at an animal sale in Missouri.

Wente does not blame anyone directly, but said he wonders whether the shooter got his address from the Web site of the animal advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which posted the information just days before the bear was killed.

PETA had accused Wente late last month of killing and skinning animals, then turning their pelts into rugs -- claims Wente denies. PETA asked Effingham County's board to ban captive wild animals in the county.

Wente doesn't know if someone wanted to make Boo-Boo a martyr, believing that the bear was better off dead than captive, "but if my address never goes out over the Internet, I believe I would still have my animal," he said. "I'm not blaming nobody, but after that got posted, things up and happened."

Wente says he's not one to get attached to much. But Boo-Boo's been with him since he bottle-fed the bear after buying him as a cub at a sale of exotic animals.

"I guess it's just something different to have," said Wente, who also has kept tigers and cougars. "Why do you have a dog or a cat?"

But PETA has been keeping its eye on the part-time farmer, part-time print shop worker, monitoring U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection reports. Owners of exotic animals must have a USDA license to exhibit animals such as Wente does.

PETA recently said it found a March report that showed Wente killed a tiger and bear for "food and fiber," and suspected the animals were skinned for their pelts, which in some cases is barred by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Wente says he killed the animals, but only for their meat.

Lisa Wathne, PETA's senior captive exotic animal specialist, said her group asked U.S. Fish and Wildlife to investigate, questioning "his purported concern for [Boo-Boo] when he admitted that he butchered another bear and tiger."

Boo-Boo was shot between Sept. 26 and Sept. 28, Effingham County Sheriff's Lt. Kevin Williams said.

Several spent rifle cartridges were found in and near the dead bear's pen, Williams said.

But Wente said the incident won't stop him from keeping exotic animals. He hopes to buy another bear in the spring.