INTERVIEW: Animal describes life as Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunter

Animal Planet recently began the second season of Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters, its successful reality series about two teams of bounty hunters looking for suspected criminals in the Montana and Colorado wilderness. On the Montana part of the show, Rob and “Animal” walk the line between seriousness and humorous, often talking down suspects from making any regretful decisions.

For Animal, this line of work began in the 1970s after a phone call from a friend.

“Back in the ‘70s, a friend of mine was working for a bail bonds company, picking people up, and he called me one night and asked me if I’d like to go help him,” Animal said recently during a phone interview. “We went out and picked this guy up, and he was one of those ones that I laughingly called a problem child. He ended up getting a ride in the trunk because he was so unruly. We couldn’t put him inside the car. And we drove a little ways, and he reconsidered his decision. And from there, I had so much fun doing it that I started doing it, off and on, just kind of a backup thing.”

Animal said that in 2000 he met a bondsman who needed some extra help, someone he could trust. It was during this experience that he started working with Rob, his colleague on Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters, which airs new episodes 10 p.m. Sundays on Animal Planet.

“I stun people because I never shut up when I start talking,” Animal said with a laugh. “It just works out real well for me. I can talk to just about anybody, and a lot of times the only time some of these people have ever had any common courtesy or respect is from us because they just haven’t had that in their normal life. It stuns them a little bit and also makes them kind of calm down, and then they hear our story, we hear their story, we take them to jail, and a lot of times we end up maybe not friends but not enemies. That’s kind of why I do it. I’m really good at it.”

Animal said he’s not afraid of the suspected criminals he’s tasked with finding. He said as long as there’s adequate preparation, the process of bounty hunting should be quite smooth.

“I already know what I’m going to do, and Rob already knows what he’s going to do,” Animal said of the process. “So when they hesitate, we already got them. It’s usually one of those things where it’s just too late for them to do something silly. The ones where they know we’re coming, see us coming, those are the ones that are the scary ones because they get a chance to decide what they’re going to do.”

The environment that Rob and Animal operate in is quite unique. Montana, with its snow-topped mountains and lush greenery, offers some obstacles for both the hunter and the suspect.

“I live in the foothills of the Rockies, so I’m right in amongst tall mountains all the time,” Animal said. “And we grew up in the mountains. I grew up around here. I was born around here. Rob was born on the Olympic Peninsula, so we’re used to the mountains and being out in the woods.”

Animal said the key to survival in this sometimes harsh terrain is not to panic.

“When I see people that have died of starvation or anything like that, and when they find them, they’ve got a backpack full of stuff. It’s all because they panic, and as long as you don’t panic, you can live in the woods a long time. … I’m at home in the woods as much as I am anywhere else. We just go out and find them and give them a free ride home, or virtually a free ride home.”

Animal considers Rob a “brother from a different mother.” They get along — for the most part. They can be seen fighting and laughing, but the laughs seem to always win out.

“You’ve got to take this job with a grain of salt and kind of smile and laugh about some of the stuff that happens,” he said. “The other thing is if you’re working in my line of work, you need to work with somebody who you trust to have your back. And that works with I and Rob either way. I mean if he sleeps in the North, he doesn’t have to worry about anything coming from the South because I’m looking that way and vice versa. Rob’s a cool guy. It takes a little while to get used to him, and it takes a little while to get used to me.”

Animal said that if two people have to sit in the same cab of a pickup truck and share a hotel room as much as he and Rob do, they better get along. “There are some people who can’t live with their spouse in the same hotel room or in a car for very long,” he said. “So I’m pretty proud of the fact that the two of us get along really good.”

Here’s how Animal summed up his unique profession as a Rocky Mountain bounty hunter: “If you go to court, you never see us. You never have to be on TV. You never have to be in my car, none of that. That being said, I’ve probably seen more people who were misjudged or innocent than I have the hardened criminals. I mean there are people that are return offenders, of course, that they just don’t get the program. … There’s definitely enough people out there to keep me busy.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters airs 10 p.m. Sundays on Animal Planet. Click here for more information.

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