Former beauty queen Theresa Vail, who made headlines back in 2013 for being the first Miss America Pageant contestant with exposed tattoos, is in trouble with the law after killing a female grizzly bear and then attempting to cover it up. The 25-year-old one-time Miss Kansas and Army National Guard member now hosts an Outdoor Channel show, Limitless with Theresa Vail, which according to the description on the network’s website, tells the “compelling story of a young, grass roots, red-blooded, all-American woman who is on a mission to overcome stereotypes, break barriers, and use her life story as a platform to help transform people’s opinions of all the things a woman should, could and can be.”
It was during a hunting excursion with her series in May of this year that Vail, along with her guides, were hunting a male Alaskan grizzly bear. After having shot the bear once, Vail fired a second shot but accidentally hit a nearby sow, killing both bears. The only problem was that she and her team had only procured a tag to kill one bear, because it’s perfectly legal to kill grizzlies so long as you have the proper tags.
Vail and her team then went and retroactively obtained a second tag which they used for the second bear, before skinning both bears.
Renfro’s attorney, Myron Angstman said Monday that he had not seen the criminal complaint but was aware of the charges.
“It’s an unfortunate event,” Angstman said. “It was an accidental shooting of a second bear while a person was lawfully engaged in shooting a first bear,” he said. “Those kinds of things happen once in a great while.”
One might imagine that “those kinds of things” can easily be avoided by just not trying to kill any bears in the first place. Vail is facing misdemeanor charges for killing a grizzly bear without possessing a state bear tag, as well as unsworn falsification.
Here’s a promo for Limitless with Theresa Vail:
https://youtu.be/tWB8YkGRC_Q
(Via U.S. News)