Story of students processing a bear on Cornell University campus goes viral

Ithaca, N.Y. — The story of two Cornell University students butchering a legally-harvested bear in their college dorm kitchen has gone viral, garnering national headlines.

Although the students names or exact location of the hunt were not published, various news outlets are reporting on the incident, which has also been a hot topic on social media outlets.

New York’s earliest black bear season opened in a portion of southeastern New York Sept. 6.

A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said that on Sept. 7, DEC’s Division of Law Enforcement responded to a call at Cornell University regarding a bear taken by hunters.

“DEC determined that the bear (approximately 120 pounds) was lawfully taken in DEC’s Region 4 and that there were no noted violations of the Environmental Conservation Law or DEC regulations,” the spokesperson said.

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According to the Cornell Daily Sun, a complaint was lodged after word had spread that the two students processed the bear in Ganedago Hall, an undergraduate residence hall on the campus, in Ithaca.

Cornell officials also told The Ithaca Voice newspaper that “Two Cornell undergraduate students with valid New York State hunting licenses killed a bear lawfully over the weekend. The students brought the animal into a Cornell residence hall for processing on Saturday.”

Dr. Keith Tidball, a Cornell scientist who is also the president of the NYS Conservation Council said he also heard there were no infractions on the part of the student hunters, nor of any school rules prohibiting the processing of the bear carcass.

“But it has certainly caused a firestorm. I’ve seen six or seven news outlets, including NBC, covering it,” he said.

Tidball did take issue with some of the reports he felt villainized the hunters despite their operating entirely within the law, saying he was saddened that the tone of the piece seemed to implicitly, if not explicitly, shame the students for doing something perfectly legal and natural.

“The sort of sleuthing regarding the legality of their actions, and the permissibility of processing fish or game on Cornell campus in particular contributes to the ‘othering’ of hunters and anglers and those that prefer to live close to nature and their ancient humanness, suspiciously regarding them instead of celebrating their efforts to escape ecological amnesia,” Tidball wrote in a Facebook post he said was also sent to a local newspaper editor.

Along with the aforementioned media outlets, the story was also picked up by Yahoo, USA Today, People and The New York Daily News.