GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A big-game hunter who legally killed a 7-foot polar bear more than a decade ago in Canada has received a year's probation after using a 24-foot boat to ferry the trophy to Michigan.
WOOD-TV says that 73-year-old Rodger DeVries of Ottawa County's Georgetown Township also got a $2,000 fine at his sentencing Thursday in Grand Rapids federal court.
Defence lawyer Terry Tobias has described DeVries as an avid hunter who acknowledges his mistake in not getting proper U.S. permission.
Tobias says DeVries got an export permit and other needed permission from the Canadian government, and also complied with Native Canadian and provincial laws.
The bear was killed in November 2000 in Nunavut mounted by a taxidermist in Calgary.
