Twelve days after two students processed a bear in Ganędagǫ Hall, Aaron Chin ’27 came forward as one of the hunters to detail his account of the incident and its aftermath on The MeatEater Podcast Network.
Cornell University Police Department received reports of a skinned bear in the main floor kitchen of the Ganędagǫ Hall dorm Sept. 7. A University spokesperson told The Sun that no charges were filed. Chin did not reply to a request for comment from The Sun.
The incident was immediately met with online backlash on Reddit and Cornell’s Sidechat, an anonymous social media platform — resulting in national news coverage and even garnering an opinion piece from The Dartmouth.
Chin appeared publicly to claim responsibility for the incident for the first time on the podcast. Chin, a mechanical engineering student, is also a volunteer firefighter for the Cayuga Heights Fire Department and a US army cadet and squad leader with the Army ROTC at Cornell.
Chin said that, while there have been many critics, many people have reached out to organizations he is a member of to express their ongoing support after the event’s publicity.
“A lot of people opened their doors,” Chin told Steven Rinella, host of The MeatEater Podcast Network. “Of course, [there are] the keyboard warriors and the basement dwellers, but people have been overwhelmingly supportive.”
And while Chin replied, “Oh, hell no” when asked if he would conduct an animal processing in a dormitory kitchen again, he said he does not regret his actions.
“I didn't think it would become that large and definitely we'd probably do it in the woods next time,” Chin said. “But also looking back, no regrets for what we did, how we conducted ourselves. Like the fact that we thought about the implications … we were very considerate of just our etiquette and how we conducted ourselves when we were processing.”
Chin shared that he and his hunting partner — whose name he did not share on the podcast — planned their hunt two hours from Cornell in an undisclosed state forest for the first day of early firearms season.
Following the hunt on Sept. 6, Chin and his partner intended to process the bear at a friend’s place when the friend had an “emergency to tend to” that led to the plans falling through, according to Chin. Not wanting to let the meat spoil, they headed to Ganędagǫ Hall’s communal kitchen for processing.
“We didn't expect it to blow up. We were really diligent in reading all of the rules [and] regulations,” Chin said. “We made sure we did everything by the book because we knew we were going to be under scrutiny.”
By the evening of Sept. 7, images of the bear began circulating on Sidechat, a Cornell social media app, and Reddit, with users questioning the sanitation, legality and whether processing the kill in a dormitory kitchen followed community guidelines.
NBC News reported that an investigator from the Department of Environmental Conservation visited Cornell that Sunday and confirmed that they “found no code violations.”
In an email to The Sun, a Cornell spokesperson verified that “the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards determined that the [bear processing] incident is not a violation of the Student Code of Conduct.”
The statement also detailed that several offices were working together to address the impact of the bear processing, including the residence hall where the bear was processed and stored.
Cornell Housing and Residential Life emailed a statement on Sept. 18 to Ganędagǫ Hall residents to clarify that the kitchen had been sanitized and reopened as of Sept. 8.
Chin shared that University authorities gave minimal follow-up with him after the initial investigation. However, he noted that Student Support and Advocacy Services reached out due to the national media coverage.
“I remember when it was at its high point [of people] talking about it, I'm like, ‘Wow, okay. This is the talk of the town,’” Chin said. “And for the most part, people in the real world have been pretty supportive.”
Anjelina Gonzalez is a member of the Class of 2026 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at agonzalez@cornellsun.com.
