Man pleads guilty to taking protected species from N.C. refuge
By Lauren King, The Virginian-Pilot
February 28, 2011, NEW BERN, N.C.
A 60-year-old Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the taking of a protected species from the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge.
Kenneth Dobis of Woodlyn, Pa., also pleaded guilty to trespassing on a wildlife refuge. He was sentenced to three years probation and fined $10,000 in federal court, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
On May 21, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Refuge officers observed Dobis and his son, Keith, carrying pillowcases and snake sticks along a roadside adjacent to the wildlife refuge, the news release said. The officers, with help from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, conducted surveillance on the two for the next few hours in and around the Mattamuskeet and Swan Quarter National Wildlife Refuges.
The next morning, officers continued their surveillance of the pair at their hotel and saw Keith Dobis leave his hotel room carrying what appeared to be a snake in a pillowcase. Dobis placed the pillowcase inside the trunk of a vehicle, and the two men left the hotel together in the vehicle.
The officers stopped their vehicle and received consent to search the vehicle. They found a quantity of marijuana and an Eastern Pigmy Rattlesnake, a protected species under North Carolina law, the news release said. Officers also found two copperhead snakes, a rat snake, two worm snakes, three turtles, 11 frogs, a skink and equipment used to collect reptiles and amphibians.
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