Greetings from Tucson......

Kathleen Mahon FLEOA General Counsel Kathy Mahon passed away from cancer at her home in New York on December 1, 1994. She was 49 years old. FLEOA has established the Kathleen P. Mahon Memorial Trust fund to help with the needs of her four surviving children.

Newsletter

Bill Halainen needs any material you can pass along for this newsletter. Any news regarding interesting investigations, retirements, transfers, promotions or anything else is needed on a continual basis.

Association Dues

Thanks to the efforts of Mike Lucckino, everyone who renews his or her Association membership for at least three years will receive an 11-ounce stoneware coffee mug with 22-karat gold badge overlay. The cups are microwave safe, come in a dark royal blue color, and can also be purchased separately for only $5 each. Those of you who missed paying last year due to the canceled in-service should consider paying another year's dues and getting one of these great looking mugs.

Availability Pay

In the event that you haven't already received a copy of the WO/LE memo of January 10th regarding availability pay, you'll be pleased to see the availability pay bi-weekly time sheet developed by WO/LE. While this is an interim form, many of us are hoping that the same basic format can be retained as our national policy is developed. the open comment period on the interim rules published by OPM closed on February 22nd. Additional information on this issue will be passed along as it becomes available. FLEOA Address Change The administrative offices of FLEOA moved to a new location on December 31st. Their new address: Consolidated Corporate Services Office, PO Box 508, East Northport, NY 11731-0472; 516-368-6117 (phone), 516-368-6429 (fax).

Association Elections

National elections are scheduled for this coming summer for the positions of FWOA president, vice president and secretary/treasurer. All regional representatives and members should begin thinking about placing names of interested individuals into nomination at our upcoming in-service sessions at Tucson and Brunswick. I'm planning on including election ballots in our June newsletter.

Personnel Updates

Congratulations go out to a number of Association members on their recent selections for various positions: Frank Shoemaker,ARD Albuquerque; Cindy Schroeder, SRA Albuquerque; Bob Standish, SRA Salt Lake City; Commodore Mann, SRA Billings; Don Patterson, SRA Richmond; Sam Jojola, Special Ops.

Indictment for Animal Part Smuggling

Here's the Associated Press report on a good case made by   George Phocas. George's note to us refers to the case as "a classic example of the famed aphrodisiac defense": "A Chinese businessman has been indicted for allegedly trying to smuggle into the United States boxes of exotic animal parts worth more than $500,000... "A federal grand jury on Tuesday (October 18th) indicted Chang Hao An, 39, on charges of smuggling wildlife specimens into the country, trading in endangered or other protected species, and making false statements to the U.S. Customs Service. "Chang, who is from China's Jilin province, has been held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest September 14th at Los Angeles International Airport. "He allegedly had arrived from Beijing with boxes filled with the full skeleton of a tiger, bear gall bladders and substances made from other animal parts, said Assistant United States Attorney Patricia A. Beaman.

"The indictment also accused Chang of violating an international treaty known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and Wild Fauna and Flora. The treaty protects species of wildlife that are presently threatened with extinction and which are or may be affected by trade, Beaman said. If convicted, Chang faces 11 years imprisonment and a $600,000 fine. "His public defender, Jerry Salseda, defended Chang against the charges, saying the Chinese use the animal parts as aphrodisiacs and for medicinal purposes. "'This is a big cultural misunderstanding to some extent,' Salseda said. 'They have bear farms in China and what they do is they extract with a syringe from the bear gall and they use that as medicine. They also grind up different types of animal horns.' "He said Chang had bought the tiger from a zoo in Russia after the animal had died. "'He has a death certificate for the tiger,' Salseda said. 'It's not like he's going out in the wild and killing a Bengal tiger.'

"The indictment also charges Chang with falsely stating on a U.S. Customs declaration that he was bringing into the United States goods valued at $90, Beaman said. "Aside from the tiger and bear gall bladders, Chang was carrying 60 boxes of substance labeled as containing rhinoceros horn, musk deer and Saiga antelope; 60 lumps of a substance labeled as containing musk deer; and 200 bottles of dried bear bile, Beaman said. "The case remains under investigation by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service...

Butterfly Poaching Case

On December 14th, Richard J. Skalski of Redwood City and Marc L. Grinnell of Santa Rosa pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of violating the Endangered Species Act and other international wildlife conventions. A third member of the group, Thomas Kral of Tucson, pleaded guilty on January 30th, just as jury selection was beginning for his trial. The three were arrested last year for poaching butterflies between 1983 and 1992 in Grand Canyon National Park, Yosemite National Park, Death Valley National Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes National Seashore and a number of wildlife refuges and national forests. More than 2,200 butterflies, including 210 protected under the Endangered Species Act, were taken for commercial gain over the period.

The case was developed after Fish and Wildlife agents and Grand Canyon rangers and investigators began an investigation two years ago into poaching of a rare species of butterfly from the park. Collectors have paid hundreds of dollars for some of the rarer butterfly species the men collected, which included the San Bruno Elfin, Mission Blue and Lange's Metalmark. This is reportedly the first federal case ever made against butterfly poachers. The men could receive fines of up to $250,000 and prison terms of up to five years.

Montana Hunter Harassment Law

The following was taken from the fall, 1994, issue of Wildlife Law News Quarterly: "The Montana Supreme Court declared that the state's hunter harassment statute did not violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. State of Montana v. Lilburn, 875 P.2d 1036 (June 9, 1994). An animal rights activist who threw himself into the line of fire between a hunter's rifle and bison that had wandered outside Yellowstone National Park unsuccessfully challenged his misdemeanor conviction under the statute. He argued that the law, which prohibits international interference with lawful hunting...violated his right of free speech... "In reversing a state district court decision, the Montana Supreme Court held that the statute proscribes conduct rather than speech protected by the First Amendment.

Furthermore, even if it regulates expressive conduct that is protected by the Constitution, it does so in a nondiscriminatory manner. 'We recognize that the consequences of this statute may fall more heavily on persons opposed to hunting than on those with different viewpoints, but this does not by itself render the statute content-based. The existence of a content-neutral motivation for the statute is all that is required.' The court concluded that the statute was not unconstitutionally vague or overly broad because its primary purposes, to promote safety in hunting areas and to prevent interference with lawful hunting, were legitimate and it was narrowly drawn in time, place and the manner in which it regulated expressive conduct. "The defendant has asked for an extension of time to petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court."

Parrot Cartel Broken

On August 17th, the last members of a south Texas smuggling ring that smuggled endangered parrots from Mexico and Latin America into the United States were found guilty by a jury in federal court in Corpus Christi. The convictions culminated a three-and-a-half year investigation into illegal smuggling of Amazon parrots which centered on Jesus Maldonado and his Sandia, Texas, organization. The investigation showed that Maldonado was possibly the largest (by volume) Amazon parrot smuggler in the United States from 1989 to 1993, accounting for several thousand baby and adult birds a year for the pet and collectors trade in this country. The investigation was conducted by FWS and Customs agents and resulted in 15 individuals receiving a total of 206 months in prisons, $31,000 in fines, 27 years of probation, and 700 hours of community service.

Elk Poaching Indictment

Last September, Chad Beus, 24, of Salt Lake City, Utah, was indicted by a federal grand jury on three counts associated with the killing of a large elk in Yellowstone National Park on the night of September 18, 1993. The poaching incident was highly publicized by regional and national news media, in part because the large bull elk had been readily visible from the road during rut and had been the center of attention for numerous wildlife photographers and cinematographers. The elk was shot during the night and its antlers were removed. The indictment followed a year-long cooperative investigation involving Yellowstone rangers, FWS agents, the Wyoming State Crime Lab, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Eagle Case

Here's one from a National Park Service area in Montana that you might find interesting. On May 13, 1994, William and Frank Hugs, both employees at Big Horn National Recreation Area and members of the Crow tribe, whose lands adjoin the park, were sentenced, respectively, to 18 and 15 months in prison after being convicted of nine Lacey Act violations for killing bald and golden eagles in 1992 and 1993. The case began in May, 1992, when William Hugs and a non-tribal friend shot a sow black bear from a boat on Bighorn Lake and retrieved three live bear cubs. One cub was eventually seized in Billings, Montana; a second was sold by William Hugs to a Montana Fish and Game operative; the third died. Montana wildlife officers then began a 12-month-long undercover operation which led to all of the felony and most of the misdemeanor charges against the Hugs brothers, another member of the tribe, and two non-tribal associates. The brothers were snaring and shooting eagles, primarily for the sale or trade of the feathers, and would shoot elk, bear and deer for bait for their snares, which were set out on reservation land around the park.

Among the items found during warrant service on William Hugs' residence was a videotape showing him shooting eagles trapped in snares. The video was filmed by his wife a year before the state and federal investigations were begun, and therefore demonstrated a predisposition to these illegal activities. Additional state charges were filed for felony livestock violations, misdemeanor illegal possession of bears, drug possession, and violations of probation. The assistant U.S. attorney successfully disputed the religious freedom contentions of the defendants.

Boating Tip...

Here's an idea that was passed on to us by  Rick Perry, quoted just as he sent it: "Just had a suggestion to anyone who uses a Jon boat for surveillance, etc... "I learned the hard way. I left my 16 foot aluminum boat with a 25 hp motor and moved only a hundred or so yards away to watch some hunters. I watched for an hour or so as they used a live decoy, shot ducks during the closed season, etc. I returned to the boat to make the apprehension, and it was high and dry and the water was 20 feet from the boat. It took 30 minutes of #*!! to finally get the boat floating, and I made the apprehension. But I could hardly get out of bed for the next three days. "Anyway, here is something that I found that works and is inexpensive.

Buy a three foot to four foot piece of four inch PVC pipe and three inch PVC pipe. The three inch pipe will fit inside the four inch pipe and will take up less room in the boat. The pipe fits easily between the ribs of the boat and takes up little room. You have a perfect set of rollers if you ever get stranded. The rollers will also work if you wish to hide your boat on a bank or wish to pull the boat up on a beach between stumps or downed trees."

Top, News, Home,
This page last revised 5/16/98