Help Free Bob!

Bob is currently locked up, through no fault of his own, and folks are scrambling to get a campaign complete with petition going to help him reclaim freedom. Please help free Bob!

Fittingly, Moosehead Breweries in Saint John, N.B. have stepped up and will be taking over all legal expenses! They have also added the campaign to free Bob to their corporate web site along with a link to the petition: http://www.moosehead.com/corporate/freebob.html




April 4, 2006

Your mission: To help Free Bob!
Join the petition to set loose this kingly piece of Canadiana, seized by the province's ministry of natural resources
By MARK BONOKOSKI

Our mission today, should you choose to accept, is to vigorously launch the Free Bob campaign -- to set loose what's left of a moose that is being held in captivity by enforcement officials within the ministry of natural resources.

It may seem frivolous, but it is not.

Frivolous is to concern ourselves with today's speech from the throne, with Iraq and Afghanistan, with the price of gas at the pumps, and with whether Pamela Anderson's near-baring of her puppies at the Junos will save a single seal.

Those scenarios are out of our control.

We are here today to free a moose head named Bob.
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April 1, 2006
No excuse for moose
How was he to know it was illegal to sell the thing?
By TRACY MCLAUGHLIN, SPECIAL TO THE SUN


Ken Procyk, seen with girlfriend Stacey Madden in 1990 when they were both aged 16, poses with Bob at the Procyk family cottage near Kingston. The magic moose later led to a marriage. Bob, meanwhile, is in lockup.


NEWMARKET -- A man who was hauled into court after he sold a stuffed moose head on eBay says he's going to fight to the end to get "Bob" back.

"This is ridiculous," Ken Procyk, 34, said yesterday after rejecting a Crown offer to settle the case.

The Aurora businessman said he had no idea selling the majestic moose head that his family fondly nicknamed Bob was against the law.
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March 28, 2006

Man fined for selling a moose head on eBay
By MARK BONOKOSKI

Two Ontario conservation officers -- complete with field kit of bulletproof vests and sidearms -- show up at Ken Procyk's Aurora home one day and pull out their ID.

Introductions and formalities over, one cuts to the chase.

"Are you trying to sell a moose head on eBay?" he asks.

"No," replies Procyk. "I've sold a moose head on eBay. Why? Is there some kind of problem?"

And so it began.
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[Royal Tiger]

Canadian whiskey must be stronger then I thought.

[ensteele]

Poor Bob!

[Electrophil]

If Bob would quit wearing that silly party hat, he may get the respect he wants.

[mohrds]

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking the law."

At least that's what the cop told me when I tried to get out of a ticket.

Originally Posted by mohrds

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking the law."

At least that's what the cop told me when I tried to get out of a ticket.

But Bob is innocent!
Besides, not everyone can know every law. Apparently there's an old ordinance still on the books in Milwaukee that says it is illegal to park for over two hours unless a horse is tied to the vehicle. Bet you've broken that one!

(gotta see if I can verify that law and get the exact wording and fines )

[mohrds]

Originally Posted by Bipa

But Bob is innocent!
Besides, not everyone can know every law. Apparently there's an old ordinance still on the books in Milwaukee that says it is illegal to park for over two hours unless a horse is tied to the vehicle. Bet you've broken that one!

(gotta see if I can verify that law and get the exact wording and fines )

I never said I agreed with it, I was just repeating what i was told. Milwaukee has lots of old, strange laws.

It is illegal for more than 4 unrelated, unmarried women to live in the same house. It was an old anti-brothel law.

No Barberry bushes may be planted on public land. Oddly enough, city hall has a row of Barberry bushes in its garden.

The law I use to my advantage all the time is Milwaukee's definition of Jay-walking. It is worded that crossing the street within the crosswalk against the traffic lights is illegal. That means that you can cross in the middle of the street without getting a ticket as long as you stay out of the crosswalk.

Then there are the bizarre building codes. Those have since been fixed when the city adopted the standard international building codes in 2002, but here are a few examples:

We had city sewer capacity problems, but yet prior to 2002, it was illegal to divert your downspouts out of the sanitary sewer system. No rain gutters running into your garden allowed.

You were required to have a floor drain in your basement, yet it was illegal to install a check valve so sewage wouldn't back up into your basement. Most plumbers just installed the check valve after the inspector left and capped the floor drain.

There are many more related to horses, but I can't remember them right now.

May 20, 2006

Bob is no further ahead in legal tussle
Court hearing over hairy artifact is put over until June 30
By MARK BONOKOSKI

NEWMARKET -- Bob the Moose is not out of the woods yet -- as no deal was reached in provincial court here yesterday that would see him cut loose and heading home for the May 24th long weekend with his owner, Ken Procyk.

He remains, therefore, a moose head in lockup.

The matter was briefly brought before Justice of the Peace Cornelia Mews yesterday afternoon and was quickly set aside until June 30 for pre-trial.

Pre-trial is an in-camera session -- and therefore closed to the public -- during which time the prosecution and defence will attempt to hammer out a resolution to avoid a trial.

If nothing is hammered out on that last Friday in June, then a date will then be set for a full-fledged trial.

All the publicity around the Free Bob campaign has obviously not gone unnoticed by the ministry of natural resources, whose conservation officers seized Bob and charged Ken Procyk for essentially attempting to sell wildlife parts on eBay -- even though it is a 20-year-old stuffed moose head which was once attached to moose long ago shot and eaten in Alberta, and therefore a long way from being poached black bear gall bladders heading for the big dollars of the black market.

Prosecuting the case, for example, is Paul Gonsalves, who is not just any MNR lawyer, but the ministry's chief counsel and head of its legal services branch.

In other words, he's the ministry's top gun.

Unfortunately he was too tied up with other MNR cases yesterday to be accessible for comment.

However, as Procyk's Aurora-based lawyer, Lonny Mark, said prior to yesterday's court date, the case has taken on major proportions unbefitting the alleged crime.

"If they simply give the moose head back, all this would go away," said Mark. "But (Procyk) needs to keep the moose."

The Crown's offer to Procyk at his last court appearance was a $250 fine upon a plea of guilty, and the forfeiture of Bob.

It was the forfeiture, however, that became the stumbling block because it would essentially leave Bob wandering in the wilderness -- his future home a question mark.

This, of course, does not sit well with Procyk, nor with the handful of supporters who showed up in court yesterday wearing their Free Bob T-shirts -- Bob boosters who included Procyk's uncle, Paul Nelson, cousin P.T. Nelson, good friend Mark Emmerson and Anna Andrew, publisher of Taps, a magazine dedicated to the beers served in Canada's bars and pubs, including (what else?) Moosehead.

WOOLLEY WARNING

There was, however, a certain irony that Bob the Moose had a court date on the eve of the May 24th long weekend, especially since the OPP issued a perfectly timed media advisory through the Canada News Wire urging everyone to "mind the majestic moose."

Quoted, of course, was the omnipresent Sgt. Cam Woolley, of the OPP's traffic safety division, who warned motorists heading to cottage country to be on the lookout for all the Bobs of the forest who have thus far managed to escape having their heads hung as trophies.

It was a Moose Alert, so to speak.

"The leftover road salt from the winter, and black flies especially, draws moose to the roads," said Woolley, all the while warning that approximately 20 people a year are killed in collisions with wildlife.

'WHY THE LONG FACE?'

Moose like Bob, in his better days on the whole, of course, can easily weigh 700 to 800 kilos.

(The OPP's message, by the by, was backed by Moosehead Breweries, which also happens to be proud sponsor of the Sun's Free Bob campaign.)

In the meantime, a moose walks into a bar, and the bartender says to him, "Hey, buddy, why the long face?"

"It's my best friend, Bob," says the moose. "It's the May 24th long weekend, and the poor guy's still in lockup."

"Look on the bright side," says the bartender. "At least he doesn't have to contend with all the black flies."

"Right you are," says the moose. "In that case, mix me up a double margarita. Heavy on the salt."