Norwegians Tortured Swedish Bears to Death – Three Sentenced to Prison

Three men, two of whom are Norwegian, have been sentenced to prison for aggravated hunting offenses during a licensed bear hunt in October 2023. This was decided by the Östersund District Court.

For several hours at the beginning of October last year, a mother bear and her three cubs were hunted by six men driving a pickup on small roads north of Strömsund in Jämtland.

Hunting bears in this manner in itself constitutes a hunting crime: partly because females with cubs must not be shot, and partly because hunting, according to the Hunting Act, may not be conducted from motorized vehicles.

Eventually, the hunters shoot and kill all four bears but only report the mother bear. They fail to mention that she had cubs, which they also shot.

Three Sentenced to Prison

The next day, the County Administrative Board received an anonymous tip about the illegal hunt, along with a video recording showing the hunters pursuing the four bears from the pickup.

All six men have now been convicted of crimes, with three receiving prison sentences for aggravated hunting offenses. The man who shot the female bear is a Swedish citizen; he was sentenced to one and a half years in prison. Two others, both Norwegian, were instead each sentenced to one year in prison.

One of the convicted men is the Norwegian TV presenter and celebrity Isak Dreyer. He was given a suspended sentence and 120 hours of community service for aggravated handling of illegally hunted game. Among other things, this is because he took the skin of one of the illegally killed bear cubs back to Norway with him.

The remaining two men, both Norwegian citizens as well, received suspended sentences and daily fines for hunting offenses of normal severity. It was not proven that these two were involved in the hunting of the bear cubs.