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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend October 30, 2005 Two men and their bear: Love, loss and the law By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune After nine days of hearing a lone black bear cub wail from its hiding spot inside a Coos County logging site, Rocky and Jonathan Perkett believed they had to choose whether to drop a tree on the cub or rescue it. The father and his 28-year-old son freely admit they chose the latter, taking home the bear and raising it as their own over the past two years. They named her Windfall, after the wind-dropped trees they were cutting at the time. The men shared pizza and Dr. Pepper with the bear and gave her free reign of their Allegany home in the woods outside Coos Bay. The bear slept in Jonathan Perkett’s bed, took showers and even had her hair blow-dried, Rocky Perkett says. "We’re not lying about it," says Rocky Perkett, 54, in his thick backwoods drawl. "We lived with her. We loved her. We treated her like a daughter." Advertisement But that kind of love is illegal in Oregon, and police Monday seized the bear during a raid at the Perketts’ house. The men now face possible misdemeanor charges for illegally holding the bear without the required permits and in an unlicensed facility — their home. The Perketts’ story is an unusual version of an all-too-familiar scenario that pits the heartstrings of some animal lovers against state statutes meant to keep wild creatures in the wild. "The law says you can’t hold wild animals in any way," says Wildlife Administrator Ron Anglin of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The cases run the gamut. People routinely believe they’ve rescued found deer fawns, baby raccoons or seal pups from sure death when it would’ve been best to just leave the animals alone or call the experts. The Perketts’ case is a 150-pound example of what not to do, authorities say. "It’s illegal to transport a bear without a permit," Anglin says. "Nobody’s going to take you to task over that if you take it to town, call the ODFW and report it. (But) you can’t take it home." The Perketts maintain their case is different because the bear actually never was "held" or locked in a cage. They simply opened their house to her, Rocky Perkett says. She could come and go at will, he says, even managing to open doorknobs with her paws. "Is there a law against a bear running around in your yard?" Perkett says. "Doesn’t she have rights as a bear?" Moreover, the Perketts plan to hire an attorney and hope a glitch in the Oregon State Police’s search warrant — their six-digit address had one wrong digit on the warrant — will get their case thrown out of court and perhaps even get the bear returned. "Everything they done here was unlegal," Rocky Perkett says. "Since it’s all unlegal, I hope they will bring her back." OSP Sgt. David Gifford acknowledges the mistake on the warrant, but he believes the warrant contains enough other descriptions of the property to remain valid. "That will be up to the courts," says Gifford, stationed at the OSP’s Charleston office near Coos Bay. "Courts in the past have showed us that’s not a big deal." No citations have been issued, but Gifford says he expects charges will be filed as early as next week. Holding a bear without a permit is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $6,350 fine. Meanwhile, the bear has been shipped to a California Department of Fish and Game holding facility, where it will remain until the case is concluded and a judge issues an order about what to do with it, Anglin says. The bear’s likely future is to live out its remaining years in an American Zoological Association-accredited zoo or permanent holding facility that is willing to accept it, Anglin says. None has yet been found, he says. The bear’s habituation to people makes it a liability and a public-safety concern, and there are no plans to release it, Anglin says. Perkett acknowledges there’s little chance of getting the bear back. But he hopes his family’s good intentions and lack of understanding of the law will entice officials to back off prosecution. "We’re hicks. We’re mountain men," Perkett says. "We took her because she was dying and we loved her. "The only thing we did wrong was love one another," he says. ODFW biologist Stuart Love, who helped tranquilize and seize the bear during Monday’s search, says he doesn’t doubt the men’s sincerity or affection for the animal. People’s personal attachment to wild animals makes seizures like this "the worst part of my job," Love says. "You could see the hurt in those guys’ eyes when we took it," Love says. "But there’s no way we could leave that bear with them. It could end up killing someone." The Perketts don’t believe the bear would ever harm anyone. "We have hours of movies and dozens of pictures of her playing with us," Rocky Perkett says. This bear, he says, is unique, much like the mountain men who raised her. "Very few people are like us," Perkett says. "We’ve heard that." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail Two men and their bear: Love, loss and the law ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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