RFK Jr faces call for investigation into claim he chainsawed whale’s head off
RFK Jr faces call for investigation into claim he chainsawed whale’s head off
Activists say Kennedy could’ve committed felony violation for allegedly driving with whale skull strapped to car roof
His independent White House campaign has fizzled, but the flow of bizarre stories of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s unorthodox handling of the carcasses of wild mammals has experienced no similar suspension.
An environmental group is calling for a federal investigation into the former presidential candidate for an episode in which he allegedly severed the head of a washed-up whale with a chainsaw – and drove home with it strapped to his car’s roof.
The episode has parallels with another extraordinary tale reported earlier in August in which Kennedy confessed to dumping a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park and attempted to make it look like the animal was killed by a bicyclist.
The latest grisly revelation, about the whale head, is not particularly new – it stems from a 2012 interview Kennedy’s daughter Kick gave to Town & Country magazine, in which she talks about a visit to other family members of the political dynasty in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, more than two decades prior.
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Okay, but if it was already dead, and he didn’t kill it, what’s the big deal?
“Mr Kennedy’s apparent transport of the marine mammal skull from Massachusetts to New York, and therefore across state lines, also represented a felony violation of the Lacey Act, one of the earliest wildlife conservation laws enacted by [the] United States in 1900,” he wrote, adding that it was also illegal to possess part of any animal protected by the endangered species act.
Oh.
I think the purpose of that language is to prevent
peoplehunters claiming they just happened to find it dead.I hate when actions that cause no harm are made illegal, just because actions that do cause harm are harder to investigate.
Yep! Everyone on lemmy acting like this guy harpooned the thing himself. Technically illegal? Sure. But not the sort of thing that's usually prosecuted unless some sort of public attention is drawn.
Lucky for him nobody has drawn public attention to it.
A close shave... only he and the rest of the English speaking world shall know.
Just to be clear though... whether the things he is doing are technically illegal or not... they're batshit insane. This privileged socialite just running around the US bagging himself any carcasses that aren't nailed down, transporting them large distances, and sometimes dumping them in places...
Ya know, all totally normal behavior. Average American shit. Definitely not weird.
What are the chances that he is going to replace JD Vance soon?
Maybe I was lied to in boy scouts but I was told that law even prevents you from keeping a feather naturally dropped by a bald eagle. So cutting the head off an endangered animal would definitely be a no no.
All feathers are illegal, but they will most certainly throw the book at you for Eagle feathers. The animal rescues have to transport dead bald eagles to the federal government where they get DNA tested and cataloged and feathers are only distributed to Native Americans who have gone through a permit process. A first time offense is a $100k fine and a year in prison.
Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act
Handling and Distribution of Bald and Golden Eagles and Parts
This is exactly as mentioned in other comments, to prevent the "it was already dead when I got here" excuse.
Oh wow thanks for all the info!
Of course! Learning all the crazy laws and regulations is one of my favorite things about visiting rescues.
My favorite legal eagle story is the park near my work had a rescue Bald Eagle that died. I was talking to the caretaker about it, and he told me about the shipping process and the DNA cataloging, and he said the eagle was currently in the freezer to keep it intact for eventual shipping once he received instructions. He told me that was nothing though, he also has another eagle he found in a field from 10 years ago in the freezer with it. It was determined it died of avian influenza (bird flu), so the carcass is banned from leaving its local quarantine zone. At the same time, it's a federal crime for him to bury it, burn it, etc. So it's been chilling on ice for a decade awaiting federal intructions. Wild stuff!
What's so special about bald eagle feathers that people want them? Not quite the trophy hunting that I normally think of.
There are a lot of reasons for these laws existing, though many will seem odd now since it's something that has been extremely illegal for about a century now.
Native people have string cultural tradition in which Eagle feathers and others are important. While they are the only ones allowed to possess them, it's only after a very extensive process. People are willing to pay ridiculous money to "jump the line."
When the time these laws were passed, art and fashion used feathers and animal skins. The flashier or more amazing the animals, the more parts were worth. Raptors especially, being apex animals, don't reproduce very quickly, and it is very easy to hurt their populations, and as they are the biggest, baddest birds, their feathers are top choice. Talons were also in demand, again, because they are pretty awesome.
People also just used to collect weird stuff, including dead animals. Tour the house of a rich person from the 1700s or 1800s house and you will likely find all manner of dead animals. These people did the same thing as people do online now. They wanted to look more awesome than everyone else in their social circle. Looking like a fancy biologist, explorer, or hunter made you seem interesting, and all you had to do is kill something fancy looking, or pay someone to do it for you.
Here are 2 news stories for you. The first is still going on from this year. Two men killed at least 3600 birds for profit in 6 years. That's just 2 people.
In the second story, it is people and businesses selling animal parts from all over the world. It's like shark fins, elephant tusks, pangolin scales, and so on. They're rare, and people will pay.
Man pleads guilty in eagle ‘killing spree’ on reservation to sell feathers on black market
A Washington state man accused of helping kill thousands of birds pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to shooting eagles on an American Indian reservation in Montana and selling their feathers and body parts on the black market.
Branson and a second defendant, Simon Paul, killed approximately 3,600 birds, including eagles on the Flathead reservation and elsewhere, according to a December indictment.
Federally recognized tribes can apply for permits with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take a bald or golden eagle for religious purposes, and enrolled tribal members can apply for feathers and other bird parts from the National Eagle Repository in Colorado and non-government repositories in Oklahoma and Phoenix. There’s a yearslong backlog of requests at the National Repository and researchers say the high demand is fueling the black market for eagle parts.
17 people, 2 pawn shops sentenced in eagle trafficking case
Parsons’ office said the operation used undercover techniques to buy protected bird parts from 51 suspects over 19 months. Authorities said the purchases happened over the internet and in Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Edward Grace, acting assistant director of the Office of Law Enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in the statement that agents and forensic scientists found more than 35 bird species — spanning every continent but Antarctica — had been trafficked.
“This operation, which began in America’s heartland, illustrates how wildlife trafficking is a global crisis,” Grace said.
Not just bald eagles, or all eagles, or even all birds of prey. The migratory bird protection act covers nearly 1,100 species of birds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act_of_1918
And that list includes some very common birds, like some gulls.