West Virginia Mascot Shot Bear With Musket

The West Virginia Mountaineers mascot shot a bear with a musket, in a classic example of taking your job way too seriously. The Mountaineer is apparently a method actor, as he took his school-issued musket, which is part of his costume, and killed a bear while on a hunting trip.

WVU had asked Jonathan Kimble, who is the Mountaineers mascot on game days, to stop using his musket on non-school sanctioned events, but Kimble claims it's tradition for the mascot to shoot bears with the musket.

A WVU spokesman said, “While Jonathan Kimble’s actions broke no laws or regulations, the university has discussed this with him, and he agrees that it would be appropriate to forego using the musket in this way in the future.”

Kimble posted a video of his hunting trip online, which has since been removed, but seems unwilling to stop shooting bears with his musket. He said in a statment: “Hunting can be a controversial topic. I apologize to any of those who took offense to the video. It definitely wasn’t my intent to offend anybody. Other Mountaineers have gone and shot multiple deer with it before. I’ve taken it with me deer hunting before, also.”

Here is an image of the mascot having shot the bear with his musket.