Bear man Charlie Vandergaw -- who once hosted the largest gathering of semi-tame bears in Alaska at his homestead west of Anchorage -- was Thursday fined $20,000 for feeding the animals and shackled with a 180-day suspended jail sentence.

The suspended sentence handed down by a district court judge in Palmer will likely guarantee the 71-year-old former Dimond High School teacher avoids future temptations to attract and train black and grizzly bears at his outpost in the Yentna River drainage. The jail time could be imposed if Vangergaw goes back to baiting his so-called "Bear Haven" with dog food to attract bears.

For more than 20 years, Vandergaw lured bears to the retreat near Alexander Creek about 50 miles from Anchorage. Then he used dog food, cookies and other treats to train the bears to live with people much like big dogs. It was his passion.

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His attorney, Kevin Fitzergerald of Anchorage, said Vandergaw did it "because he loved the bears" and wanted to demonstrate they could live in harmony with man. Fitzgerald blasted the state for causing "the tragic end of a pursuit with so much promise, a pursuit that has the potential of teaching us ... that man could interact, could have relationships with bears at a much higher level, a more humane level."

State officials have countered there is no higher level where bears will become the new trendy pet. Bears, Assistant Alaska Attorney General Andrew Peterson argued, are potentially dangerous and need to be treated that way.

"You don't feed bears," he said. "You don't cuddle with them. At some point, it's going to lead to someone being hurt and killed."

After a day of testimony, District Court Judge John Wolfe sounded skeptical about the latter claim.

"The harm caused by Mr. Vandergaw, if any, is minimal," he said in pronouncing the 180-day suspended sentence and $20,000 fine -- the minimum agreed to by Vandergaw and his attorney earlier this week when he agreed to plead guilty to eight counts of feeding bears in exchange for the dismissal of 12 others and an agreement to hold his fine between $20,000 and $72,000.

Peterson had argued for the largest fine possible. He said Vandergaw not only engaged in dangerous activity by inviting others, including children, to Bear Haven to get close to and sometimes touch his bears, but Vandergaw made money from the deal as well. Depending on which side was doing the accounting, Vangergaw pocketed anywhere from $71,000 to almost nothing from Firecracker Films, a London-based firm, for the rights to shoot a documentary about him and his bears. The two sides also disagreed on how much Firecracker and television networks made off the show. That number floated between $350,000 and $750,000.

Wolfe decided the money didn't matter because he saw in Vandergaw's behavior no desire to profit off Bear Haven. From watching video of Vangergaw and the bears, the judge said, "it's pretty obvious Mr. Vandergaw cares deeply for these bears." The judge thought he saw "mutual affection" from the bears, too.