FLORENCE, Ore. (AP) — Charges against a Florence man arrested for fatally shooting a 90-pound bear cub rummaging in his neighbor’s garbage will be dismissed under a plea agreement.
The Eugene Register-Guard reported Friday (http://bit.ly/xvth4E) that 29-year-old Blake Christensen has pleaded no contest to animal abuse, but the charge will be dismissed if he doesn’t break the law for the next six months.
The bear, its mother and two other cubs were in a neighborhood west of U.S. 101 in November. Christensen hit it with a pellet gun from 15 feet.
He argued he was protecting neighbors and doing what coastal Oregonians do when bears invade their property.
