Five Year-Old Boy Kills Bear

I love animals, thats why I love to kill them.

Five-year-old Tre Merritt shot and killed a large black bear in a forest in Arkansas. He was hiding in a hunting stand half way up a tree with his grandfather Mike waiting for deer that look nothing like bears.

The bear weighed 445lb, and was 12 times the size of Tre, but it was unarmed and not expecting to be shot from a distance. The family now plans to have it mounted.

"I was up in the stand and I seen the bear" said Tre in bad five year-old grammar, "It came from the thicket and it was beside the road and I shot it."
His grandfather said he had whistled at the animal when it was 40 to 50 yards away, at which point it stood still then he told Tre to shoot it.

Mr Merritt added: "I said 'Tre, you missed the bear'. He said 'Paw-paw, I squeezed the trigger and I didn't close my eyes. I killed him ." Then Tre went home and watched the Teletubbies episode in which La La learns how to shoot the bunny rabbits that frolic around their home .

Mr Merritt said that Tre was descended from famous American frontiersman Davy Crockett, who supposedly killed a bear when he was three.

Tre is five and armed with a high powered rifle when he actually killed a bear. "I think every toddler should be given a gun and taught to kill and not let it bother them" added Mr Merritt , "potty training and book learnin can wait."

Tre started shooting when he was two-and-a-half years old and last year shot three deer. By the time Tre is seven he is hoping to go on to large game cats and then by the time he reaches high school he should be ready for people.

Ed Scott from the "Inherit the Earth" conservationist organisation said, " I don't know what they have against the animals that they have go around shooting them from concealed positions. I say they should be put in a room with a bear unarmed as the bear is and see how great they are then. "