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DENNIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) - Paris Hilton's reality show "The Simple Life" is disputing allegations that a deer was illegally killed so that it could be gutted by the socialite and her sidekick, Nicole Richie. State officials said the deer was killed Tuesday night and they believe it was to be gutted for the show. Investigators are looking into accounts the deer was shot by someone firing a gun from inside a car. Two men working for the Fox show could face fines of between $100 and $500 for permit violations and hunting out of season, said Elaine Makatura, spokeswoman...

Two Española men were arrested in raids Wednesday and are accused of participating in illegal elk and wild game hunts organized for tourists from Virginia. The hunts took place in the Valles Caldera National Preserve and the Gila National Forest, according to federal court records. Registered guide Jeffrey Clem of Española and Mike Archuleta, owner of Sierra Taxidermy in Española, were each placed under arrest and charged with violating federal wildlife law. During a raid at Archuleta's taxidermy shop Wednesday morning by officers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Game and Fish Department, row upon row...

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - It is an unexpected headache for the Indian army, an unlikely embarrassment for the government and an unwelcome challenge for the railways department. Elephants in India are on the rampage, coming into conflict with man ever more frequently and ever more dangerously. It is a battle the normally gentle animals seem destined to lose. In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, elephants have been raiding army depots, eating the military's rations, drinking its liquor and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. In Bangladesh, stray elephants from India have been terrorizing villagers and destroying farms,...

John Kerry appears brandishing a shotgun whenever he can and claims to be an "avid" hunter. I don't know what kind of an animal and avid is, but his now famous deer hunting quote makes me think it improbable that he has ever really hunted. I wrote the following to the MA game commisioner and got no repsonse: August 9, 2004 Commissioner David Peters Department of Fish and Game 251 Causeway St., Suite 400 Boston, MA 02114 Re: Public Records Act Request Hunting Licenses for John Forbes Kerry Dear Mr. Peters, I would like to request copies of any documentation...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state Department of Fish and Game is changing how it manages its game wardens because of a worsening shortage that has left some portions of the state without any protections at all against poachers. The realignment will phase out some supervisors in favor of field officers over the next three to five years, giving the department more flexibility in assigning wardens where they are needed, said spokesman Steve Martarano. To add more wardens after a yearslong hiring freeze, the department is on the verge of establishing a permanent joint law enforcement officer training program with the...

Ransacked West Bank antiquities turn into black-market gold On a small stone patio, surrounded by 2,000-year-old olive trees and piles of ancient pottery, Ahmed takes a deep breath as the smell of freshly slaughtered goat baked with okra and tomatoes wafts from his window. The ritual of sharing a homemade meal from an animal reared in his yard is nothing new for the herder-turned-grave-robber on days when his friends come to visit. To his left sits a once-affluent and significant Palestinian antiquities dealer in a pin-striped shirt, and to his right an Israeli antiquities hunter, who has ventured beyond the...

Poachers Threaten Last Wild Northern White Rhinos Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News May 7, 2004 A dramatic rise in poaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Garamba National Park is threatening to destroy the last wild population of northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), conservationists warn. Warring factions from neighboring Sudan have reached the heart of the park and are killing both rhinos and elephants for their valuable horns and tusks. Six rhino carcasses have been found in the last two months, and more rhinos could have been slaughtered. Before the recent killings, the northern white rhino population was...

Justice of the Peace David Ortley had harsh words for a Kalispell man who was sentenced Tuesday for poaching a trophy bull moose last November. "There are people who are born and raised here who can go through their whole lives without an opportunity to legally hunt a moose like this," Ortley told Frank Wayne Campbell. Campbell, 35, pleaded guilty to one count of killing a bull moose without a license or a permit and one count of possessing an unlawfully taken moose. Those misdemeanors came on top of Campbell's guilty plea last week to felony driving under the influence....

Navy boards illegal fishing boat A NAVY boarding party rappelled down ropes from a helicopter to seize a suspected illegal fishing boat in treacherous Antarctic seas, the federal government said today. The boat, Maya V, was apprehended late yesterday for suspected poaching within Australia's economic zone around the remote Heard and McDonald Islands, more than 4000km south-west of Perth. "Our frigate HMAS Warramunga and her sailors on patrol in Australia's southern oceans battled extremely bad weather and high seas to intercept and board the Maya V," Defence Minister Robert Hill said in a statement. "It is a credit to their...

Rebel soldiers are slaughtering the Northern White rhino and selling the horns to buy arms, reports Susan Bisset One of the world's rarest rhinos has been hunted almost to extinction by rebel troops in Congo. There are now only 22 Northern White rhino alive in their last remaining wild refuge - down from 30 last year. Unless urgent action is taken, the rhino will be extinct within months, conservationists say. The Northern White (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), a sub-species of the white rhino that used to be found across central Africa, is being killed by rebel troops for their horns, which...

The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that conservation officers may search boats without probable cause or the consent of the owner, handing a victory to those who argued that such searches were critical for protecting natural resources. ``The difference between the inspection permitted under the facts of this case and searches impermissible under the Fourth Amendment is that fishing is a largely recreational privilege that anglers choose to engage in with knowledge of the regulations governing their conduct,'' Justice James Gilbert wrote for the majority in the split opinion. Col. Mike Hamm, enforcement chief for the Department of Natural Resources,...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Armed South African officials were hoping Wednesday for another attempt to board a Uruguayan ship chased for 20 days through Antarctic seas on suspicion it has been poaching the rare Patagonian Toothfish, also known as Chilean sea bass. A South African salvage tug, the John Ross, came alongside the Uruguayan-flagged Viarsa late Tuesday, but waves of up to 33 feet and heavy snow prevented a boarding, according to Australian and South African officials. "We think it might happen (the boarding) at around 1600 our time (10 a.m. EDT) but we will see what happens. The...

A sea chase in the icy Southern Ocean was heating up last night as customs officers pursued a trawler believed to be fleeing with a multi-million-pound haul of illegally caught Patagonian toothfish.The Southern Supporter, an Australian customs ship, has been chasing the trawler, the Viarsa, for 11 days, since it was spotted near the Heard and McDonald islands, more than 2,000 nautical miles south-west of Australia.   Click to enlarge Ignoring commands to stop, the Uruguayan-flagged trawler set off through snow storms and icebergs to try to escape. It is believed to be carrying Patagonian toothfish, a species highly prized...

JACKSON, Wyoming - Dr. Bruce Hayse doesn't look like a tin-pot dictator. He favors tropical shirts and Western boots, not camo fatigues and a chestful of medals. He drives a muddy truck, not an armored limousine. So why is this middle-aged family physician living on the summit of cowboy chic in Wyoming recruiting his own army 8,000 miles (12,900 kilometers) away in the remote and wretched Central African Republic? "Don't call it an army," Hayse said, wincing. How else to describe 400 soldiers brandishing AK-47s? Militia? Mercenaries? Military? "All of the M-words are bad, too," he admonished. "It's an anti-poaching...