ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A cable television network suspended a hunting show after the program’s host and nine others involved in the production were charged in a federal poaching investigation at a national preserve in remote northwest Alaska.
The Sportsman Channel on Tuesday immediately suspended “The Syndicate” from airing on the network and launched its own internal investigation, said Jim Liberatore, CEO and president of Outdoor Sportsman Group Networks.
“We take this situation very seriously and have acted swiftly to suspend the show, its producers and talent,” Liberatore said in a statement. “If true, what has been alleged is clearly unacceptable, unethical and against everything our networks stand for.”
Prosecutors on Monday said more than two dozen grizzly bears, moose, caribou and Dall sheep were illegally killed in the Noatak National Preserve, which is north of the Arctic Circle and near Alaska’s northwestern coast. The illegal kills ended up on the show, authorities alleged.
There were at least four hunts conducted in Alaska for the show over the last five years. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Skrocki, the lead prosecutor, said at a news conference Monday that all the Alaska hunts for the show were conducted illegally but were edited to appear that they were legal.