Wingnuts

Add Animal Poaching to the List…

...of reasons Ted Nugent belongs in a padded cell.

Nugent has settled with federal prosecutors for illegally killing a black bear in Alaska.

Activist and musician Ted Nugent has signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors admitting he illegally shot and transported black bear in Southeast Alaska two years ago, according to the agreement.

Nugent, 63, launched an arrow at a black bear while on a bow-hunting trip with friends in Tongass National Forest in May 2009. Federal prosecutors say he wounded the bear, attracted to the hunters by a bait station. Nugent's lawyer says the arrow grazed the animal and it scampered off alive.

Whether injured or merely scratched, the bear got away. Nugent shot and killed another bear four days later. Then he put the scenes on TV. [...]

Nugent and the prosecutors now agree: The second bear was shot illegally. By striking the first bear and killing the second, Nugent exceeded his bag limit for Game Management Unit 2. Transporting the illegal second bear off federal property -- in a boat called the El Dorado -- amounted to a misdemeanor violation of the Lacey Act, the law that prohibits the sale and transport of illegally harvested wildlife and plants, among other things.

Of course this makes him an ideal Republican spokesperson, and until Mitt Romney says more than just "both sides should be civil," I have no qualms with attributing Nugent's antics to the party.