WARNING: The following story and accompanying video are extremely graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.
The Humane Society of the United States released horrifying video on Wednesday showing a father and son slaughtering a family of hibernating bears in Alaska in April of 2018.
Andrew Renner and his son, Owen Renner, found a mother and her cubs hibernating in a remote den while they were skiing on Esther Island in Prince William Sound.
The US Forest Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game had set up a camera on the den as part of a study. The cameras were set up with motion sensors so that they would begin recording as soon as the bears emerged from their den.
They never did.
Instead, the motion sensors were tripped by the Renners, who could be seen walking up to the mother bear as she slept and shooting her dead at point blank range, while the cubs shrieked in fear until Andrew Renner fired more shots, killing the entire family.
“They’ll never be able to link it to us,” one of the men can be heard saying.
Thanks to the cameras, they did.
They were later filmed returning to the site, picking up the spent shell casings, and disposing of the dead bear cubs in plastic bags.
After destroying evidence at the scene and presenting the mother as a legal kill to the state’s wildlife agency, lying about killing the cubs and submitting falsified information, they later plead guilty.
Andrew Renner was sentenced to five months in jail with two months suspended, a fine of $20,000 with $11,000 suspended, and to forfeit property used in the offenses.
Owen Renner was sentenced to suspended jail time, community service and is required to take a hunter safety course.
“Justice was served—but these animals deserve more respect and compassion,” the Humane Society said in a release. “Federal law currently forbids this practice on national preserves in Alaska, but the current administration is looking to remove such prohibitions. If this heinous cruelty occurs while protections are already in place, overturning them would all but encourage these massacres to continue.”
