Charges: Minnesotan illegally killed protected gray wolf, other animals and bragged of conquests

A Minnesota hunter illegally killed an array of fur-bearing animals in recent years that included a federally protected gray wolf, a bear and coyote, according to charges and other court records.

Brady Tyler Harth, 30, who lives east of Hinckley, was charged in Pine County District Court last week with three gross misdemeanors and two misdemeanors in connection with alleged poaching violations in 2021 and 2022.

An earlier court filing from the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) accused Harth of many more acts of poaching in recent years and noted that he bragged about his conquests in messages and photos on social media.

Harth was charged by summons and is due in court on Dec. 9. Court records do not list an attorney for him. Messages were left Thursday with Harth seeking his response to the allegations.

County Attorney Reese Frederickson declined to answer specific questions about his office’s prosecution of Harth including whether felony-level charges were possible.

“In general,” Frederickson said, “what is charged in criminal complaints reflect the available state or local charges pertaining to the ... allegations of those complaints.”

According to the criminal complaint and supporting court documents:

A DNR conservation officer was tipped in January to Harth possibly having other people register furs at designated stations.

That tip led the officer to Harth’s Facebook and Snapchat pages, where she discovered that he “has posted publicly throughout recent years about [when] Harth did not have a license for the hunting and trapping activity that he engaged in,” read a search warrant affidavit that cleared the way for a court-approved search of his home in late April and seizure of his cellphone.

“He has taken/possessed bear, deer, fish and furbearing animals without licenses,” the filing continued. “Harth has failed to register big game animals and has transported them illegally.”

Another affidavit listed a veritable zoo of illegal kills that Harth documented in images and words on social media dating back more than three years. They include a bobcat, coyotes, a beaver and a bear that prompted him to write, “First bear with a bow had my heart pumping, that’s for sure.”

On Snapchat, Harth posted photos with a gray wolf and a gun “as well as photos of a wolf in a potential snare from a different date,” the filing read.

That DNR search of Harth’s home turned up whitetail deer mounts, guns and an unspecified white powder packaged in a bundle.

Also, the affidavit continued, “a dead gray wolf was seized near a suspected trapping/kill site described by Harth.”

Gray wolves in the contiguous 48 states and Mexico — with the exception of the Northern Rocky Mountain population — are protected from hunting under the federal Endangered Species Act and listed as threatened in Minnesota and endangered in the remaining states.

Gray wolves roam in the forests of northern and central Minnesota, with their population estimated by the DNR at just shy of 3,000 during the winter of 2022-23.

Messages on Harth’s social media referenced him giving away meat from a bear he shot while unlicensed and receiving praise for multiple deer he killed when not licensed. There also were photos and messages about him fishing without a license.

DNR spokesman Joe Albert explained that investigations of poaching such as this one are important because “Minnesota’s fish and wildlife belong to all people of the state, and fishing and hunting seasons are set to protect our natural resources now and into the future.”

Albert continued, “When people poach fish and game, they not only steal resources that are held in the public trust, but they also can negatively impact fish and game populations at local levels. Thankfully, most anglers and hunters understand that poaching is illegal and unethical and do not engage in it.”

This story contains material from the Associated Press.