Family-Outdoors

Facebook has a long memory and, in some cases, a very public one. Two Wisconsin men have been found guilty of illegal guiding and poaching across the border in Canada and it’s partly because of their own Facebook posts that they were caught. U.S. Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad of the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced June 27, 2016 that the two Milwaukee-area men have pleaded guilty in federal court for violating the Lacey Act and lying about it to a federal officer. These violations are related to the unlawful importation of wildlife into the United States that had been killed in Ontario, Canada, in violation of Canadian law. In late 2013, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry conservation officers decided to look into complaints relating to the illegal hunting activities of Reid Viertel, age 41 of West Allis, Wisconsin, and various associates, including Terry Schmit, age 43 of Franklin, Wisconsin. These complaints were partly based on public Facebook posts by V...

Benjamin N. Chason, 61, of Climax, Georgia pleaded guilty and was sentenced in U.S. District Court for three charges related to violating the Lacey Act. Chason was ordered to pay $1.6 million in fines and restitution, the largest sum of money ordered of an individual to pay for a wildlife crime in the United States. Of the $1.6 million, $600,000 is to be paid into the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Habitat Fund $200,000 to the Federal Endangered Species and Wildlife Diversity Fund, $400,000 to Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks and $100,000 to the Ohio DNR Division of Wildlife Turn in a Poacher (TIP) program. Carter Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Gregory Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, United States Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, Chief Scott Zody, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Ge...

Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Hinsdale, Illinois, man pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to illegally trafficking in paddlefish caviar after being caught in an undercover operation in the Warsaw, Missouri, area. In support of Missouri’s paddlefish conservation efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation conducted a covert investigation, “Operation Roadhouse,” centered on an area known as the Roadhouse in Warsaw. As part of the covert operation, state and federal officers operated a paddlefish snagging business during the 2011 and 2012 paddlefish seasons. Covert officers also sold paddlefish to people who were interested in buying them. Fedor Pakhnyuk, 41, of Hinsdale, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matt J. Whitworth to trafficking in paddlefish and paddlefish eggs in violation of the Lacey Act. Pakhnyuk admitted that he traveled to Missouri in April 2...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Robert J. Wilkins, 53, of Semmes, Ala., was sentenced on July 17, to 4 years of probation for Wilkins’ role in guiding illegal deer hunts in Iowa. As conditions of his probation, Wilkins must serve 6 months of home confinement and pay $12,000 in restitution to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Wilkins was also ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Crime Victims Fund. According to United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt,  beginning in at least 2010, Wilkins guided out-of-state hunters, who did not have Iowa hunting license or tags, during illegal white-tail buck deer hunts on land in rural Lucas County. Wilkins arranged for the hunts, provided hunting equipment, collected guide fees, provided instructions to hunters for avoiding detection by game wardens and law enforcement, helped process illegally taken deer, and transported the meat, capes and antlers of illegally taken deer from Iowa to Alabama. This investigation was conducted b...

An Iowa man will be going to prison for intentionally killing an American bald eagle. On November 6, 2014, Jason John Thomas, age 36, of What Cheer, Iowa, was sentenced by District Court Judge John A. Jarvey to 60 days imprisonment for taking and possessing a bald eagle, announced United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt. On March 16, 2011, Thomas took and possessed a bald eagle in rural Mahaska County. During a boat ride, Thomas saw the bald eagle on a bluff above the river. Thomas pursued the eagle as it flew down river, captured it after it landed in the river, and then struck and killed the bald eagle. Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, "take" includes pursuing, shooting, shooting at, poisoning, wounding, killing, capturing, trapping, collecting, molesting or disturbing a bald or golden eagle. “Cases like this often can't be made without someone who comes forward with information. We could solve a lot more serious wildlife crime...

Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation officers are seeking information regarding a bear poaching incident that occurred in the evening of Nov. 16 in northeast Manistee County. A trail camera photo provided to the DNR by witnesses shows a bear sow and three cubs seen in the vicinity of the Manistee County poaching incident. Conservation officers were called to investigate the shooting of a female black bear, found dead of a shotgun wound near a hunting blind on public land in Cleon Township. Witnesses said that the bear had been killed on Nov. 16 at approximately 5:30 p.m. Three bear cubs are believed to have been orphaned as a result of the bear being killed, although the cubs were not located. Conservation officers are seeking to interview a white male who was spotted at the scene on Nov. 16. The male is believed to be involved in the killing and is described as having a thin build, standing approximately 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall. The male had fa...

Charges have been filed today by the Jackson County attorney’s office against a Jackson County man in southwestern Minnesota for allegedly shooting a cougar on Nov. 27, 2011, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Daniel Hamman, 26, was charged by citation with shooting a protected animal. Hamman allegedly shot the cougar after being contacted by a neighbor, who saw the cat run from a rural grove of trees into a culvert. The cougar was shot as it flushed from the culvert. Maximum penalties Hamman could face include a fine up to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail. The DNR has filed an affidavit of restitution requesting the court to order Hamman to pay $1,000 to the state for the cougar. Criminal charges are not evidence of guilt. A defendant/suspect is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The cougar shot in Jackson County was a 125-pound male, estimated to be one to three years old. The DNR conducted a necropsy of the cougar to assess the ...