The man was out hunting ruffed grouse in Maine when he shot the animal.
The hunter told a judge he thought he was shooting at a bobcat when, in fact, he shot a federally protected Canada lynx. Lynx are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The judge, as explained in this Bangor Daily News story, noted (sardonically, I hope) that it wasn’t yet bobcat season in the state.
21 days in jail? Is that a stiff enough sentence for a wildlife crime like this?
An excerpt from the article: “We were inadvertently stalking the same prey,” Learnard said of himself and the lynx. “It was three feet from us, crouched down in tall grass. When it leapt toward the grouse, I shot it in the air. When I went over to look at it and saw its large paws, I knew it was a lynx … Once I knew it was a lynx I did things I shouldn’t have.”
5 responses so far ↓
Mike // January 9, 2007 at 6:14 pm |
Did this guy have a bobcat permit?
Alan Gregory // January 9, 2007 at 8:41 pm |
The bobcat season didn’t open until Dec. 1, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Web site. Now Mr. Learnard said he was in the field in late November. Whether he had a permit or not just doesn’t seem relevant. Had he been going after a bobcat, he still would have been breaking the state’s wildlife code. 21 days in jail seems like a modest slap on the wrist.
Mike // January 9, 2007 at 10:40 pm |
That’s exactly why I asked that. Thanks for the information.
It seems that this is a case of knowingly poaching an animal.
Alan Gregory // January 9, 2007 at 11:13 pm |
I agree, Mike. I wonder often just how many hawks, owls and other critters, rare or not, are poached but never discovered by law enforcement people. FWS has a reward out, by the way, for information leading to the arrest of the person who recently shot a bald eagle along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. Here’s a FWS release about that case: http://www.fws.gov/news/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=ABB499D4-0451-7899-65F152FB5DE1374D
Bird Advocate // January 10, 2007 at 11:49 pm |
We can only hope the culprit is reincarnated as an endangered animal himself. That’s #### inconsiderate to deprive us all of such animals.