A young couple from Chico bragged of having an endangered turtle’s skull and several illegally hunted animals to state wildlife agents, even though they knew these were state wildlife agents. Those agents raided that couple’s home the next day.
The New York Times has the story today of a couple from Chico taking a flight from San Diego to Sacramento, and happened to be seated on that flight in front of two California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) agents. Striking up a conversation, the agents were perfectly clear that they were CDFW agents. And yet the couple still felt comfortable bragging they had illegally hunted endangered animals, spouting off that they were illegally transporting the skull of an endangered green sea turtle, and gleefully showing the agents pictures of a “trophy room” full of illegally hunted mountain lions, wolverines, and deer.
The agents asked to see the turtle skull, which the couple showed them (it’s seen above). They clearly knew it was illegal to possess, because they were careful to check there were no TSA officers around before showing it to them. The CDFW officers promptly raided the couple's Chico home the next day.
Search warrants in hand, they found the couple had just hunted a deer that day, though it was not deer season. Per the CDFW, “Also inside the residence, wildlife officers found mountain lion claws, a ringtail cat, a barn owl mount, an illegal spike buck and several unlawfully taken deer with tagging violations.”
24-year-old Byron Lee Fitzpatrick and 28-year-old Shannon Lee Price were charged with wildlife code violations. Agents also raided the Napa home of their 64-year-old uncle Harry Vern Fitzpatrick, which had the trophy room with full-bodied taxidermy mountain lions and a wolverine, both of which are endangered an illegal to possess.
“Like human and narcotics trafficking, wildlife trafficking of both live animals and animal parts is known to fund transnational criminal organizations and their violent activities all over the world,” CDFW Chief of Law Enforcement Nathaniel Arnold said in a release. “The individuals involved exhibited a flagrant disregard for laws governing natural resources and are now being held accountable for their actions.”
So yes all three were prosecuted, but the penalties seem like kind of a slap on the wrist. After a plea deal, the couple Fitzpatrick and Price were fined about $2,000 apiece and got a year’s probation during which they can not hunt, the uncle was fined $605 and got six months probation. All of them had to give up their illegal animal acquisitions.
Image: California Department of Fish and Wildlife
