Two hunters were criminally charged this weekend after a bear-hunting incident resulted in the shooting of a hunting dog.

The incident happened off of N.C. Highway 102 near Pollard Road, according to area Sgt. Billy Cain III with North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The report was first made to Wildlife, but the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office got involved when it was discovered the dog had been shot and killed, officials said.

On Saturday morning, a group of hunters in a hunting club were roadside, attempting to corral their hunting dogs, when a bear crossed N.C. 102 onto another hunter’s property, according to the report. After the bear entered the woods, witnesses heard a shot and a hunting dog owned by Billy Waters of Vanceboro went into the woods after the bear, the report stated.

“(The hunters) heard a series of shots over several minutes,” said Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Charlie Rose. “The dog didn’t come back.”

Waters told deputies that the GPS tracker on the dog’s collar showed the dog not moving and that’s when he and the other hunters went into the woods and found Waters’ dog located next to a dead bear.

According to the report, Robert John Gnan of Greenville admitted he’d shot the dog.

In North Carolina, it is illegal to kill an actively hunting dog, though it’s justifiably legal otherwise.

Gnan was arrested and charged with misdemeanor cruelty to animals by sheriff’s office deputies.

In North Carolina, it’s also illegal to use processed food products to lure bears, according to Cain. Gnan and James Preece, the property owner, were also charged by Wildlife officers for taking a black bear with the use and aid of bait, another misdemeanor charge with a minimum $2,000 fine attached to it and costs violators their hunting licenses for two years, Cain said.

Rose said flare ups between groups of hunters, and hunters and property owners, regularly occur during deer and bear hunting seasons — reports of trespassing, of people hunting on posted land and issues with dogs, primarily.

“We get people complaining that dogs are running through their land, tearing stuff up,” Rose said. “You can’t control where the hunting dogs go. That dog’s going to go where the animals are.”

Rose said there is no documentation as to whether Gnan or Preece felt threatened by the hunting dog before it was shot. During a later conversation, Waters told deputies he estimated the value of his dog to be around $14,000, the report stated.