I've been searching for a source for this all afternoon. The Asheville Citizen-Times finally has details.
UPDATE (8:18 EDT): The story has been picked up by the Associated Press and is showing up on news sites throughout N.C. Hopefully the national media will pick up the story. Still no additional info. I removed the "BREAKING" from the title, too.
thanks to Pris from la for the photo.
Digg it here!
A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.
Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.
"It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head," Johnson said.
Campus police have a photograph of the dead bear, but it has not been released to the media.
This is more ugliness and racism rearing its head.
Sorry for the short diary.
Comment UPDATE: Be sure to read this comment by Mephie about the atmosphere at WCU.
UPDATE: My understanding is that this was a baby black bear.
UPDATE 2: Please rec this diary and if someone has a digg account, please use it for the story and send me the link. This needs to be on Olbermann tonight and all over the networks.
UPDATE 3: Thanks for the rec list! First time non-IGTNT diary. I wish it were for something happier. I'll post more as it becomes available. WCU is in a pretty isolated part of the state, and I'm not sure when the student newspaper will be coming out with a story.
UPDATE 4: Here's another news story from WYFF in Greenville, SC, although it's basically the same information.
UPDATE 5: Noweasels posts the relevant bear-hunting laws for N.C.:
The western bear season boundary is I-77 from Virginia to the
intersection with I-40, continuing along I-40West until the
intersection of N.C. 18 and then N.C. 18 to South Carolina.
The hunting of cubs weighing less than 50 pounds is absolutely prohibited.
This bear cub was 75 lbs.
UPDATE 6:
If you haven't already done so recently, maybe you could donate to Obama in memory of the bear, or donate to defenders of wildlife or the American bear association.
Thanks to Kyril for the photo in the comments.
UPDATE 7: Some of the commenters seem to think this bear might have been "road kill." However, both of the news reports say the bear had been "shot in the head," which is not road kill (edit: although some suggest a wounded bear could have been shot in the head to end its misery). Whether the people who hung the Obama/Biden sign around the bear and dumped it at WCU are the same people who killed the bear is not known. But this goes beyond "prank," period.
UPDATE 8: A little palate cleansing:
More palate cleansing videos here.