A reality TV star is facing charges of illegally killing a black bear in Kenai Fjords National Park.
Harvey Neil Anthony — known professionally as Blaine Anthony — is the star and producer of “Bear Whisperer,” a weekly documentary-style show started in 2011 that focuses on bear hunting and conservation. According to charges filed May 6, originally obtained and reported by The Daily Beast, Anthony shot a black bear in Pilot Harbor in 2017, lied about where he shot it and then sent the bear to Maine to be stuffed. The hunt was later featured on his show.
Hunting is not allowed in the national park. And federal prosecutors said Anthony and his production company Nature Productions, Inc. violated the Lacey Act, which bans the trafficking of wildlife and plants that are taken illegally.
The charges said Anthony, a resident of Maine, took at least eight black bear hunting trips to the Kenai Peninsula between 2011 and 2019. They said he featured two illegal black bear kills from within Kenai Fjords on his show.
Anthony also violated the Lacey Act when he lied about the May 2017 bear kill on paperwork filed with the state, according to the charges. Feds said the hunter wrote that he shot the bear in Berger Bay — a legal hunting site outside the park, about 20 miles away from Pilot Harbor. But in reality, they said he took the bear in Pilot Bay with an Alaska-based guide and transported it back to Homer, then to Maine.
Anthony could not be reached for comment before airtime.
A photo dated May 15, 2017 on Anthony’s personal Instagram shows him sitting over what he said is a 400-pound black bear, tagged in Homer.
Anthony will face a court hearing on the charges on June 10.
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