Country star Troy Gentry, one half of duo Montgomery Gentry, has been charged with killing a caged, tame bear and then fraudulently claiming he did so in the wild, authorities said this week.

Troy Gentry

Gentry, 39, was arraigned in federal court this week on a charge of conspiracy to falsely label an animal. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

In an indictment, authorities allege that in October 2004, Gentry paid $4,650 to shoot a tame bear named "Cubby" in its pen at the Minnesota Wildlife Connection in northern Minnesota, which advertises itself as a place where animals can be photographed in the wild.

Gentry reportedly used a bow and arrow to kill the bear, after which Gentry and the owner of the preserve tagged the bear and registered it with the state as if it had been killed in the wild. A videotape was edited allegedly to make it appear that Gentry had hunted down the bear.

Gentry could not be reached for comment, but in a letter posted on the band's Web site, Johnny Dorris of Hallmark Direction Company, the band's management company, called the charges "wildly inaccurate."

"The bear in question was never in a cage or pen; not when it was killed or at anytime prior to that," Dorris wrote. "This wild bear occupied its own habitat [consisting of several acres of woodlands] on a game preserve owned by the codefendant. Troy shot the bear with a bow and arrow from a tree stand mounted on the private game preserve. Troy did video tape this hunt for his personal use, but did not edit it to make it appear anything other than what it was. He did not distribute the video for commercial use or intend to use it to mislead anyone."

Dorris goes on to call Gentry an avid environmentalist and hunter who supports and follows all game laws.