Saving the last West African giraffes in Niger

4 December 2018

For almost 50 years, the highly threatened West African giraffe has been absent from Niger's Gadabedji Biosphere Reserve.

Illegal hunting, climate change and habitat loss have all contributed to the population's decline.

An ambitious conservation initiative has now re-introduced eight giraffes into the reserve, in the first conservation effort of its kind for the West African subspecies.

Under the initiative, spearheaded by the Nigerien authorities, the eight giraffes were captured in the country's Giraffe Zone, a government-defined region approximately 60km (37 miles) south-east of the capital, Niamey.

Until this move, the world's last West African giraffes had only been found in and near this Giraffe Zone.

There, West African giraffes share their habitat with local communities, and compete with them for space and natural resources.

The animals face a number of threats, including human population growth, hunting and agricultural encroachment.

Giraffes have now started to migrate out of the Giraffe Zone as a result of the growing population of both humans and giraffes themselves.

As a result, the animals have come into conflict with humans who are not used to their presence, and also stray into restive areas on the border with Mali.

Read on  

Minnesota investigates illegal hunting allegations on Cecil the lion killer's land

Walter Palmer, who faced public’s scorn after shooting Zimbabwe’s famous lion, said report of trucks herding deer on property was an ‘attack on an innocent man’

Associated Press in Minneapolis

Thursday 12 November 2015 18.51 GMTLast modified on Thursday 12 November 201522.05 GMT

The Minnesota department of natural resources said on Thursday it was investigating a report of potentially illegal hunting activity on land owned by the dentist who was sharply criticized for shooting a well-known lion in Zimbabwe.

Leah Thompson, who hunts on land in north-western Minnesota next to property owned by Bloomington dentist Walter Palmer, told the Associated Press that she reported the activity after seeing pickup trucks chasing deer on Palmer’s land last weekend. She said the trucks were also herding deer back on to Palmer’s property.

Chasing or herding deer with a motor vehicle is illegal in Minnesota, punishable by a $200 fine.

Palmer, who became a target of protests this summer for shooting a lion named Cecil while bowhunting in Zimbabwe, issued a statement saying he and his guests weren’t on his property near Barnesville after 11am on Saturday. He said he didn’t own or operate any of the vehicles Thompson described to the DNR.

He called the allegations an “attack on an innocent man”, and said Thompson, whose family owns neighboring property, has “a history of personal animosity” toward him.

Thompson dismissed Palmer’s statement, but acknowledged she and others who hunt on nearby land have complained for years about what they consider unsportsmanlike hunting practices on his property. She also acknowledged she didn’t see Palmer driving the trucks or hunting.

Major Greg Salo, an operations manager for the department’s enforcement division, said the investigation was in its early stages. He said DNR officials hadn’t made contact with Palmer yet as far as he knew.

Palmer was on a guided hunt when he shot Cecil near Zimbabwe’s Hwange national park. The lion was well-known to tourists and researchers for his distinctive black mane.

Continued …

Norwegian court to rule on six men accused of illegal wolf hunt

Landmark case pits survival of one of Europe’s smallest wolf populations against Norwegians’ cherished hunting rights

Elisabeth Ulven and Tone Sutterud in Oslo

Sunday 19 April 2015 15.33 BSTLast modified on Monday 20 April 201500.04 BST

Six men charged over hunting some of Norway’s last wolves will learn their fate this week when a court rules on a landmark case that has gripped the country.

Illegal hunting of wolves is thought to be extensive in Norway, driving down population numbers to perilously low levels.

Now, for the first time, the authorities have prosecuted an alleged hunting team, charging the six men with environmental offences and organised crime, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 11 years.

“It’s such a serious offence that we were given almost unlimited investigative powers by the state attorney,” said Tarjei Istad, a prosecutor in the case.

The indictment includes attempted illegal hunting, firearms offences and organised crime. The prosecutor has asked for a five-year ban from hunting, which is something most Norwegians see as a birthright. The defendants are pleading not guilty.

Continued ...

This isn’t a real deer, it’s a robot and it’s helping Florida deputies bust criminals

By Will Lerner April 10, 2014 2:48 PMOdd News

Florida has had a problem with people illegally hunting on private property, and so the deputies of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office have enlisted thehelp of three robotic deer to help catch criminals in the act. As WFLA News Channel 8 reports, the life-like deer can turn their heads, and even wiggle their tails.

Deputies will put a deer, in this case, “Robbie,” 80 yards away from a road and then hide and watch. Deputy Jeff Gross told WFLA, "We get guys that shoot at it multiple times. Unlike a real deer, it doesn't run off, and then they'll make comments, you know, about it being a dumb deer, they can't believe it's still standing there, ‘I can’t believe I missed the shot.’"

Continued

Illegal hunting on the rise in Afghanistan

By Navin Singh Khadka

Environment reporter, BBC

Illegal wildlife hunting is on the rise in Afghanistan - threatening several key species, campaigners say.

Officials admit it is happening in most provinces despite regulations banning hunting, including a decree by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

There have been claims hunting is carried out by locals and by foreign nationals from Middle Eastern countries.

However, Afghan officials could not confirm this to BBC News.

The country has listed nearly 150 wild animals and birds as at-risk within its territory but there are no detailed records of how many have been killed or poached.

Continued

Elephant 'tramples to death suspected poacher'

A suspected poacher has reportedly been trampled to death by an elephant as he tried to shoot the beast in Zimbabwe. 

By Emily Miller 

3:26PM BST 12 May 2013 

The bloodied remains of Solomon Manjoro were found by rangers after what was thought to be a botched poaching trip at the protected Charara safari area inside a national park. 

Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail reported that the local man was charged by the elephant after he entered the game reserve for an illegal hunting trip with a friend. 

The dead man's alleged accomplice Noluck Tafuruka, 29, was later arrested inside the park and charged with illegal possession of a firearm. 

The state-controlled Sunday Mail reported: "The poacher was recently trampled to death by an elephant after he failed to gun down the jumbo during a hunting expedition." 

It is believed Manjoro and Tafuruka encountered the elephant after entering the huge game reserve at the end of April. 

Police believe the pair, who were allegedly carrying unlicensed weapons, faced up to the beast and attempted to shoot it. 

However Manjoro was killed when the animal failed to fall and instead charged towards him. 

Tafuruka was later arrested by local police inside the Charara reserve, which lies near Zimbabwe's Lake Kariba in the north west of the country. 

A third man, Godfrey Shonge, 52, from capital Harare, has also been arrested over the incident. 

The pair appeared last week in court to face charges of illegal possession of firearms and of contravention of local wildlife laws. 

The magistrate was told Manjoro and Tafuruka had entered the National Park between April 19 and 26 with the sole intention of poaching. 

Incidents of elephant poaching have been on the rise in recent years, driven by increased demand for ivory. 

The valuable substance is sold on the black market and often smuggled to Asian countries including China, where it is used for ornaments and jewellery. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/10052209/Elephant-tramples-to-death-suspected-poacher.html

Well done Mr Elephant.......

Drones may be used to target 'illegal hunting'

It has been illegal to use dogs to hunt animals in England and Wales since 2005

Remote control aircraft could be used by an anti-hunting group to gather evidence of hunts breaking the law.

The League against Cruel Sports will use cameras mounted on the aircraft to monitor any illegal activity that would otherwise be difficult to film on the ground.

A charity spokeswoman said evidence would be collected and passed on to the police.

The Countryside Alliance said the idea was "completely impractical".

 “There are some really quite profound arguments going on about whether a non-governmental organisation should be able to carry out these sort of activities without proper scrutiny”  Tim BonnerCountryside Alliance

A spokeswoman for the league said: "No one owns the upper stratum of airspace so provided the drones fly at a reasonable height so as not to cause a nuisance they will not be trespassing.

"We would only use this equipment if we believed illegal activity was taking place, we wouldn't just go out and monitor anybody."

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21812600

Bushmeat Pushes African Species to the Brink

ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2012) — A recent report says illegal hunting of wildlife in South African Development Community (SADC) states can lead to the eradication of many species across extensive areas and even complete ecological collapse.

Africa's iconic large carnivores, such as cheetah, lion, leopard, and wild dog, are particularly vulnerable to this practice, either because they are caught in the bycatch from unselective methods such as snaring, or due to loss of prey. The report says that the scale and severity of the threat is such that, without urgent intervention, one of SADC's most valuable resources will be lost across vast areas of the region.

The report: "Illegal hunting and the bush-meat trade in savanna africa: drivers, impacts, and solutions to address the problem" is authored by Panthera, Zoological Society of London, and Wildlife Conservation Society.

Read on:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121025140702.htm

Wildlife wars: the uphill struggle to stop butchery in our countryside

The growing threat to Northern Ireland’s wildlife from ruthless gangs, criminals and saboteurs has been revealed.

Police are being tasked to investigate dozens of crimes including badger baiting, illegal hunting and the deliberate poisoning of rare birds every month.

Incidents are being reported at a rate of more than one a day — and this may be the tip of the iceberg. In some cases rare and endangered animals are being deliberately targeted by reckless criminal gangs for profit.

This covers not only the killing of badgers, seals and rare birds of prey, but also bird trapping, egg thefts, deer poaching and habitat destruction.

However, campaigners believe the true figure is much higher with many crimes going unreported. Among the most shocking examples uncovered by this newspaper are:

• Thugs who poured acid over magpies after catching them in a trap;

• An armed gang who were discovered shooting at some peregrine falcons;

• Criminals who were stealing rare eggs from Cockle Island;

• Seals which were killed and mutilated, including one which was decapitated;

• Water bailiffs who were attacked by a masked gang of poachers as they tried to lift illegal nets;

• A swan which had its beak broken by a thug;

• And rabbits who suffered horrific deaths at the hands of blood sport enthusiasts.

A Belfast Telegraph investigation has revealed police dealt with 1,088 reports of wildlife crime between April 2007 and August 2011, with a steady rise in incidents. The details were disclosed by the PSNI after a Freedom of Information request. However, experts believe many incidents still go unreported.

According to USPCA chief executive Stephen Philpott, the true extent of wildlife crime is higher.

“The USPCA believes most wildlife crime still goes unreported and the increase suggested in the PSNI statistics is a result of better collation of information, but still significantly understates the real scale of the problem,” he said.

Reported incidents of wildlife crime have more than doubled, from 151 incidents during 2007/08 to 377 incidents in 2010/11.

Conor McKinney from the Ulster Wildlife Trust said the rise reflected a growing intolerance to the issue — but warned many criminals still escape justice due to a lack of evidence.

“Wildlife crime is a significant and wide-ranging problem in Northern Ireland and although the figures suggest it is on the increase, it is more likely that greater public awareness is resulting in more reports,” he said.

“But many cases of wildlife crime still go unreported. Those that are seldom face prosecution, due to insufficient evidence.”

One of the most common crimes was badger baiting, with 98 incidents reported in the period. The barbaric crime, which involves badgers being dug out of their setts and pitted against dogs in fights, was reported in Dungannon, Castlewellan, Portrush and Fermanagh.

Earlier this year a major operation involving the USPCA and PSNI saw five men charged with badger baiting.

A second common crime involved the killing of deer. The animals are a prized target for poachers because of the lucrative black market trade in venison.

Birds were also targeted, including red kites, which were only reintroduced to Northern Ireland four years ago.

Criminals were also caught trying to steal rare birds’ eggs. Loughs Agency staff also reported that a concrete block had been dropped from an overhead bridge in an escalating campaign of intimidation.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/wildlife-wars-the-uphill-struggle-to-stop-butchery-in-our-countryside-16180413.html#ixzz1zgZjBfdj

2012 marks the start of The International Year of the Rhino

Increasing alarm for the fate of the two rarest rhinoceros species, and growing concern over the increased illegal hunting of rhinos and demand for rhino horn affecting all five species, has prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia to declare 5 June 2012 as the start of the International Year of the Rhino. President Yudhoyono took this step at the request of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and other conservation organisations, because the future survival of both the Javan and Sumatran Rhinos depends on effective conservation action in Indonesia.

The government of Indonesia has also made commitments to establish a high-level rhino task force of national and international experts; allocate sufficient resources to enforce protection of remaining rhino populations, and ensure that there is regular and intensive monitoring of all rhino populations in Indonesia.

Continued:  http://www.iucnredlist.org/news/2012-marks-the-start-of-the-international-year-of-the-rhino

Mozambique’s wildlife resource wasted by illegal hunting & bushmeat trade

Illegal hunting undermining food security and wildlife-based land uses in Mozambique

May 2012. A new TRAFFIC study finds that illegal hunting and the bushmeat trade have resulted in a major decline in wildlife populations in Central Mozambique, significantly undermining potential for viable wildlife-based land uses and resulting in the loss of a traditional source of protein for local communities.

Just 10% of expected wildlife, and some species exterminated
The study of Coutada 9 found that wildlife populations in the 4,450 square km protected area in Manica province are currently less than 10% of what the area could support, with several species, including rhinoceroses, Roan Antelopes African Wild Dogs locally extirpated through illegal hunting.

Significantly reducing such illegal hunting and allowing wildlife populations to recover would allow the generation of significant economic benefits through trophy hunting and potentially ecotourism. In addition, an additional 86 tonnes of wild meat could be generated from Coutada 9, if hunting was limited to regulated harvesting based on a quota system.

"The implications for the food security of local people are obvious, while restoring wildlife populations would have clear conservation benefits too," said David Newton, Director of TRAFFIC's East and Southern Africa programme.

Read more:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/mosambique-bushmeat.html

Madagascar Wildlife Facing Threat Of Illegal Hunting

Researchers have found that illegal hunting of protected species in Madagascar could cause an urgent threat to the country’s globally important biodiversity.


The scientists said that hunting of protected species in eastern Madagascar is increasing due to rapid social change.

“Our observations suggest that young men have more available cash and leisure time due to the transition from subsistence farming to panning for gold, and they spend more time in local bars, eating fried meat snacks with their drinks,” Julie Razafimanahaka from Madagasikara Voakajy, said in a press release.

Appetites for meats have increased, and traditional taboos protecting species like lemurs are becoming less powerful in the country.

“Lemur hunting appears to have increased to supply this new market. The power of the taboo is declining, under pressures of globalization and human mobility,” said Razafimanahaka.

Dr. Julia Jones of Bangor University, the study author, said that the country’s wildlife is an important asset to Madagascar’s future.

“They are worth much more to the economy alive than as meat. I sincerely hope Madagascar is able to tackle this problem,” Jones said in a press release.

The team found that people prefer to eat domestic meats like chicken and pork over bushmeat species like lemur, but in some cases they resort to eating wildlife because of the high cost of domestic alternatives.

“Improving access to alternatives would help,” Richard Jenkins of Bangor University, one of the authors of the study, said in a press release. “If domestic meats could be farmed more reliably and were therefore cheaper, the pressure on wild species may be reduced. More effort is needed to improve domestic animal husbandry methods and disease control in rainforest areas.”

Despite the country’s wildlife laws, they can be misunderstood and also go unenforced in many areas.

The researchers worked with the government of Madagascar on an education campaign to help people learn more about the law and to ensure they understand how vulnerable the lemurs are to hunting.

The research was published in the December 14 issue of PLoS ONE.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112441908/madagascar-wildlife-facing-threat-of-illegal-hunting

Millions of birds migrating to Spain face painful deaths in glue-filled traps

Up to four million migrating birds will be killed by illegal Spanish hunters this year, with many dying a slow, sticky death in traps that literally glue the animals to the ground, according to campaigners.
Thrushes flying south for a warm Mediterranean winter this week will, as usual, run a gauntlet of illegal hunters who kill some two million birds in their peak hunting season: the six late autumn weeks in which Spanish skies fill with migrating birds.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of hunters in Castellón, eastern Spain, and neighbouring areas will have already set their so-called parany traps – copses filled with glue-covered twigs and spikes.

Most of the illegally trapped birds will end up as tapas in Spanish bars, fried tidbits that locals claim are part of a cultural heritage stretching back to Roman times. "There are pictures of parany traps in the mosaics of Pompeii," said Miguel Angel Bayarri of the trappers' Apaval association. "This is a tradition that has existed for centuries and that we will continue to fight for."

Hunting of song and mistle thrushes and their cousin the redwing is not illegal, but the methods used are, despite attempts by legislators to introduce exceptions.

Campaigners say the painful deaths suffered by the birds, whose wings are glued together before their necks are broken or their heads squashed, contravene European wildlife laws.

"There have been sentences against this in the courts in Madrid and at the European court in Luxembourg," said Mario Giménez, head of SEO/Birdlife in the eastern region of Valencia.
Up to two of every five birds that fall into the parany traps will not be thrushes. Hundreds of thousands of other migrating insectivores such as robins, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and black redstarts will die. Local birds, including warblers and owls, also fall prey to the parany trick.

"That only happens if the trap is badly operated," said Bayarri. "Our members only catch thrushes. This is just banning for banning's sake."

But Giménez said few parany operators went through the laborious process of cleaning glue off birds that may not be hunted.

"Even those cleaned up with dissolvent often don't survive," he said.

Campaigners say it is time politicians, whose attempts at legalising the traps in Valencia's regional parliament have been stymied by Spain's higher courts, publicly disavow a tradition that contravenes EU law. But protecting local traditions wins votes in rural areas where setting and emptying traps may also involve evenings or weekends of food, drink and partying.

Hunting continues, even though Apaval has this year asked its members not to set the traps, where recordings of birdsong are used to lure passing birds into thickets of trees. Unable to use their glued wings, the birds fall to the ground and are killed by hand.


Read on ...

Iceland exports 131 tonnes whale meat, despite sanction threat

The Icelandic killing of Fin whales is illegal'
September 2011: More than 100 tonnes of whale products from Iceland's endangered Fin whales was exported in July - despite the pending threat of US trade sanctions.

America had warned Iceland it was considering the sanctions because it had violated a global ban on commercial whaling - but this has failed to prevent the export of a further 133 metric tonnes of whale meat.

The meat, worth more than $1.2million was exported to Japan in July.

Only US sanctions will stop this crime‘There is a line in the sand that Iceland has just crossed,' said Allan Thornton, president of America's Environmental Investigation Agency.

‘The Icelandic killing of Fin whales is illegal and its illegal export of whale meat will lead to further illegal killing of Fin whales. Only US sanctions against fish imports by the seafood company linked to Iceland's whaling company will stop this environmental crime.'

Since 2006, 280 endangered Fin whales, the second largest animal on the planet, have been killed by the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur, and earlier this year America confirmed that Iceland was undermining the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by permitting commercial whaling and international trade in endangered Fin whale meat.

Iceland has exported almost 1400 metric tonnes of Fin whale meat and blubber to Japan , worth around $18 million, since it began killing Fin whales.

Meat shipped to Japan, Norway and LatviaAs well as the shipments of whale meat and blubber to Japan, Iceland has exported whale products including whale oil to Norway, the Faroes Islands and Latvia, despite a ban on such international trade in products of great whale species by the Convention on International trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Conservationists are now pressing for action. Sue Fisher, policy director for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said: ‘Not only is Iceland abusing two international conservation agreements, it is setting Fin whale quotas that are three times higher than sustainable levels according to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the world's foremost authority on whale science.

‘American citizens overwhelmingly oppose commercial whaling, and nothing less than economic sanctions will fulfill President Obama's promise to strengthen the commercial ban on whale hunting.'

Susan Millward, executive director of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) said: ‘This recent export demonstrates the urgent need for President Obama to immediately impose economic measures including trade sanctions against Iceland.'
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/iceland-sanctions.html

Illegal Animal Trade: Eskimo Hunters Plead Guilty

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Eskimo hunters on an island in the Bering Sea were offered not only cash but firearms, ammunition, marijuana, cigarettes and snow machines for walrus ivory tusks and polar bear hides that were illegally sold, according to federal prosecutors.


When investigators totaled the take, the marine mammal peddling ring was responsible for the illegal sale and transport of approximately 230 pounds of walrus tusks valued at about $22,000 and two polar bear hides for $2,700, not to mention the tusks, skulls, teeth, jaw bones and other animal parts found in the home of the couple charged in the case. They also sold machine guns.

"This case demonstrates that there is significant volume of illegally taken wildlife parts being transferred in violation of federal law," said Kevin Feldis, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage. "Unfortunately that world wildlife problem is an issue for Alaska."

Federal law allows Indian, Aleut or Eskimos who reside in coastal Alaska to hunt and kill walrus and polar bears without a permit for subsistence purposes. But, they can't turn around and sell the animal parts to non-Natives. They can make money by turning the parts into a Native handicraft to be sold.

In this case, the parts were sold to non-Natives in a "raw" or unaltered state.

Loretta Audrey Sternbach, a 52-year-old Eskimo with closely-cropped grey hair, pleaded guilty this week in U.S. District Court to violating several federal laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. The petite woman in prison garb with "prisoner" in large black letters on the back was asked by the judge if the facts of the case were true.

"Yes," Sternbach said.

Sternbach is the only Alaska Native of the three. Her two co-conspirators, Jesse Joseph LeBoeuf and Richard Blake Weshenfelder, have already acknowledged their guilt.

LeBoeuf reached a plea agreement calling for nine years in prison. Sternbach and Weshenfelder have no such agreements but are expected to get less time. Violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits the illegal sale of wildlife, can carry a $250,000 fine.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/24/illegal-animal-trade-eskimo_n_908076.html?ir=Weird News

Monster-gator killers face charges of illegal hunting

Dallas attorney Levi McCathern II is likely not smiling so widely now.

McCathern, 42, a former Baptist minister whose website says he's represented Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in court, became something of a celebrity in his own right after claiming that he shot a 14-foot, 880-pound alligator on his first reptile hunt June 11.

Photos of him posing next to the beast along the Trinity River in Leon County were flashed on television, carried by newspapers and bounced around the Internet.

Turns out the alligator was actually 13 feet 1 inch and was no record as asserted.

Worse, arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for McCathern and his three guides for illegally hunting the big gator and an 8-footer on private property, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials said.

The four were expected to turn themselves in Wednesday at the Leon County Sheriff's Department in Centerville, about 145 miles southeast of Fort Worth, department spokesman Mike Cox said in a news release.

However, McCathern's attorney said that he was out of state on a scheduled family vacation and that the Leon County attorney has been informed. The attorney, George Milner III of Dallas, said his client will fight the charge, saying he understood that the guides had permission to be on the land to hunt.

"I can tell you he will be acquitted," Milner said.

Moreover, McCathern performed a public service, his lawyer asserted.

"As big as this alligator was, they should have given him a medal," Milner said.

One of the guides, Steve Barclay, insisted in a brief telephone interview that the landowner had given his OK.

"We did in fact have permission to kill alligators on that land," Barclay said.

Taking wildlife without a landowner's consent is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $4,000, a one-year jail sentence or both. The department will also seek more than $5,000 in restitution for the two alligators, the release said.

Both gators have been seized by authorities.

Game wardens in Leon and Houston counties began the investigation when an unidentified property owner reported that a large alligator had been killed without his permission on his land on the Trinity River. A smaller gator was taken on his property the day before.

McCathern said in at least one interview that his 14-year-old son had killed an alligator the day before he did. Cox said that earlier shooting is still under investigation.

The lawyer's guides were identified by Parks and Wildlife as Barclay, 47; Sam Lovell, 56; and Ryan Burton, 21. Barclay and Lovell operate a Kennard-based hunting-guide service called the Gar Guys.

It's not clear whether McCathern will represent himself on the misdemeanor charge.

His website boasts that he "has enjoyed unusual success in the historically more liberal courts of the northern and eastern parts of Texas. ... His strength is the same in and out of the courtroom -- relating to all people, from janitors to CEOs, on their level."

It's not the first time that Barclay, Lovell and a client faced an alligator-hunting misdemeanor in Leon County.

In 2007, a charge over the shooting of a 13-foot gator was dismissed "for lack of evidence," Leon County Attorney Jim Witt told Texas Fish & Game magazine. Witt is still the county attorney and handles such misdemeanor case.


By Barry Shlachter

bshlachter@star-telegram.com
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/07/20/3235450/monster-gator-killers-face-charges.html