It really hurts and angers me to read, for the umpteenth time, about the wanton killing of one of our precious natural resources.

The badly decomposed body of a Louisiana black bear was found by a fisherman Sept. 1 in the Atchafalaya River in Concordia Parish. The bear was part of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Black Bear Restoration Program, which means it was collared over the past year so biologists could track its movement.

LDWF Enforcement Division agents believe the female bear, approximately 4 years old, was killed in Concordia Parish and thrown into the river, where the body floated downstream.

This makes me sick to my stomach.

Slob hunters who commit these despicable acts have hurt a tremendous, united effort to rebuild the population of Louisiana black bears, which has been listed on the Federal Threatened and Endangered Species List since 1992. Killing one violates state and federal laws, which means the slob or slobs face penalties up to $50,000 and six months in jail, plus the possibility of a state restitution of $10,000.

Hopefully, the Neanderthal(s) who did this will be brought to justice. There is a reward of up to $7,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.

Tipsters can remain anonymous. If anyone hears about someone perhaps bragging about such a “brave” act as killing a protected bear, call the Louisiana Operation Game Thief hotline at (800) 442-2511 or use the LDWFs tip411 program.

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You don’t want to be “that guy” they talk about after a memorable waterfowl hunting trip like the one Catholic High School seniors Logan Fowler and Austin Lipari took last month to Canada. One of the eight outdoorsmen who went was Fowler’s uncle Jerry Fowler of New Iberia.

Jerry Fowler, one of the winningest coaches in the Iberia Soccer Association, and another hunting party member chose to leave their own shotgun behind and rent one to hunt the never-ending flocks of geese, mallards and pintails they saw near Marwayne, Alberta (see related story on this page). Apparently, Fowler’s had a slight defect.

“Unfortunately, he had a gun that gave him a little mechanical problem,” Creig Fowler, Jerry Fowler’s brother and Logan’s father, said, noting instead of firing shell after shell, as pumps do, there’d only be one shot.

“We’d ask him how his shot was doing. It was only one shot at a time,” Creig Fowler said with a chuckle.

“That was a shot gun, a one shot gun,” Lipari said.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.