Nearly 50 years before PETA was founded, Minnesota’s North Shore Game and Fish Club was preparing a feast for its annual dinner for about 250 people. The main course: bear steaks. The Minneapolis Star explained:

Bear Steaks Lure
250 to Dinner of
North Shore Club

Attracted by the lure of bear steaks, provided by Sam Rentenger, Deephaven garage owner, who sacrificed his pet bear to the feast, about 250 persons crowded the Odd Fellows hall at Long lake, for the annual dinner of the North Shore Game and Fish club.

“They were wonderful,” Louis Enstrom, deputy state game and fish commissioner, declared today, referring to the steaks. “There was plenty to go around because Sam’s bear had grown to about 300 pounds since Sam caught him as a cub. Some even had seconds.”

Several members and former members of the state legislature were numbered among the guests. William Munch, oldest game warden in the state in point of service; Mr. Enstrom, Henry Tiden of the state conservation commission, and E.R. Nordon, chief of the fourth state game and fish district, were among the speakers.

One hundred eighteen miles north of Deephaven, the bear cubs of Deerwood, Minn., appeared to have a friend in Ed Ruttger. (mnhs.org photo from about 1930)

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 5th, 2006 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Main, Muscle, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.