Two males have been charged by federal prosecutors in Montana with illegally taking pictures about 3,600 birds, together with bald and golden eagles, and promoting them, in addition to their wings and feathers, on the black market, Eduardo Medina reports for the New York Times. Simon Paul and Travis John Branson had been every indicted on one rely of conspiracy, 13 counts of illegal trafficking of bald and golden eagles and one rely of violating the Lacey Act, a federal regulation that prohibits the trafficking of illegally taken wildlife.
Prosecutors allege that from January 2015 to March 2021 the 2 males would enterprise out to the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana and interact in a “killing spree”, taking pictures down the eagles as they flew over the prairies there. One chart posted in courtroom data reveals that the lads had bought not less than one pair of bald eagle wings, 4 golden eagle tails and one complete golden eagle. If convicted on the conspiracy cost, they might every face a most sentence of 5 years in jail and a $250,000 high-quality. The case got here because the bald eagle, whose resurgence is taken into account one of many biggest conservation tales of the twenty first century, is now being threatened by repeated publicity to steer, the first supply of which being spent ammunition from hunters, who shoot animals that the eagles then scavenge.
Source / Picture: thecrimereport.org
