Zeeland Hunter Sentenced in Oceana County Bear Sow Harvest

HART, MI (WHTC) – A 27-year-old Zeeland man was sentenced to five days in jail, ordered to pay nearly two thousand dollars in fines and restitution, and lost his hunting privileges through 2018. Dennis Hassevort pleaded guilty to misdemeanor unlawful taking of a bear charge in Oceana County Circuit Court after a September 23^rd incident in the Manistee National Forest in which he shot with a compound bow a bear sow who was accompanied by her cubs in violation of state law. A state DNR biologist testified that the cubs, born early this year, should be old enough to survive the coming winter on their own.