Country music star Troy Lee Gentry is used to being in the spotlight with his singing partner Eddie Montgomery, but now Gentry is making headlines for allegedly killing a tame, black bear. The federal investigation into Gentry also includes a Lexington business owner who is defending himself.
Harry Whitehead is a Lexington taxidermist at the center of a federal case because of a popular client who is a regular of his, country star Troy Gentry seen in this music video.
"The Federal Fish and Wildlife people came in earlier this year and that was the first time we knew that anything was going bad with this particular bear." said Whitehead.
Whitehead says the bear in question was mailed to him from Gentry, but its what Whitehead didn't know about the bear that has him being questioned by federal authorities.
"We had no prior knowledge that there was anything illegal happening when we did in fact mount the bear." said Whitehead.
Gentry has been indicted for an alleged act that happened in October of 2004 in Minnesota. The indictment says that Gentry bought a bear similar to this one for nearly five thousand dollars. The indictment says he placed it in an enclosed pen and shot it with a bow and arrow and goes on to say that Gentry along with wildlife photographer Lee Marvin Greenly tagged the bear and registered it like it had been hunted in the wild. The alleged act is all the talk among the hunting world.
"It comes at a very big surprise you know, Troy's an ambassador of hunting and fishing, it doesn't look good on all hunters." said Whitehead.
Gentry's publicist says his client is not guilty. But for Harry Whitehead he could now be called as a federal witness for mounting the bear for Gentry. Whitehead just worries what type of ramifications this might incident could have on the sport.
"In this day and age all the gun lobbying and hunting and all that, we try to keep a positive light, this has kind of put a bad spot on it." said Whitehead.
Both Gentry and Greenly have been released on bond. If convicted, the men could face a maximum penalty of five- years in federal prison and a 20-thousand dollar fine.
Wednesday night 27 Newsfirst received a statement from Gentry's partner, Eddie Montgomery. He says he was not involved in the situation, and doesn't know what happened.
Montgomery says, " Before anyone assumes that Troy is guilty, I feel he has the right to explain himself, and feel confident that the truth will then prevail." Montgomery says they will continue making music for their fans.
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This is a set-up by the Dixie Chicks! LOL!
I am a fan of Montgomery Gentry and I hunt/fish. But if Troy Gentry pinned up a tame bear and shot it, then he or anybody for that matter needs the max sentence,plus loss of hunting rights for a min. of 3 yrs. all over the United States. Shooting a tame animal is no different than shooting the neighbor's cat or dog. Now that takes a real bigtime hunter .There should be no going easy on him /them because of who he or they are. ButI will say this I dont know the whole story and I never will because I was not there. People in the public eye get a hard time for things that dont amount to much more than a warning ticket on some stretch of road.,If this had been a everyday joe,it would have never made the news or papers and I would'nt be writing this post.So until Mr. Gentry is proven guilty he will not be judged or looked down upon by me.