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Cops have busted a group of oddball poachers in Prospect Park — a band of vagrants that was trapping and eating ducks, squirrels and pigeons. Parks officers wrote four tickets — two for killing wildlife and two for illegal fishing — totaling $2,100 in fines during a two-day period last week. BoroDeal The city would not immediately release details of the incidents, which occurred on July 17 and 18 — just days after park-goers told rangers about a “Beverly Hillbillies”-like scene on the southeast side of the lake, near the ice skating rink. “This is a dodgy group,” said park-goer...

– South African police said Wednesday that they have arrested 11 suspected members of a major rhino poaching ring which they said had been linked to many rhino poaching incidents. Police spokesman Vish Naidoo said the suspects include two veterinarians and a game farmer. He says the 10 were arrested earlier this week and one was arrested Wednesday after he appeared in court to support the accused. Game farmer Dawie Groenewald was released on 1 million bail ($140,000), which is believed to be the heaviest in the crime's history. The remaining 10 were released on bail ranging from 5,000 to...

RENO, Nev.—Two men accused of shooting and killing five wild mustangs in Nevada last year have changed their pleas to guilty and now face up to a year in jail and $100,000 fine.

Logic gives you what you need. Passion gives you what you crave. In the end, it's passion that feeds your dreams or part of you dies. When it comes to logic, it makes financial sense to keep all state parks open. Last year, state parks had 79.6 user visits that generated $2.6 billion in spending during those trips. For every dollar the state put into parks, it generated $2.35 in tax revenue. Yet in his last-minute line-item budget cuts, Gov. Schwarzenegger slashed general fund money to state parks. ...., yet could close 100 parks starting in September. When it comes...

A lifetime hunting ban. That's the sentence handed down in Couer D'Alene Friday to a man guilty of poaching. Timothy Herbert was also ordered to pay more than 12 grand in fines, and was tagged with 4 years probation. Fish and Game says Herbert hunted deer and turkey illegally....there have been fewer than 50 lifetime hunting bans imposed in Idaho's history.

CASPER, Wyo. A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction and four-year prison term for a southwest Montana man who pleaded guilty in an elk poaching case. Michael David Belderrain of Whitehall, Mont., pleaded guilty in February 2008 to being a felon in possession of a firearm, transporting illegally possessed wildlife and possessing illegally taken wildlife. Belderrain was charged for standing in Yellowstone National Park, shooting an elk just outside the park and dragging the head to his pickup truck in the park.

The stupidity of some people must never be underestimated, and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries occasionally provides classic examples of it whenever none-too-bright poachers are caught red-handed. What irks me, however, are dreadful violations of wildlife laws that eventually involve descriptions such as "hunter" or "hunting," which is the wrong application of the meaning and intent of the words. See if you don't agree. Shortly after midnight on a recent late-summer day, Virginia senior game officer Dewayne Sprinkle received a call from the Bedford County Sheriff's Office about a possible spotlighting incident. Apparently a county resident saw...

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Poachers in Congo have killed a fifth of the elephants in Africa's oldest national park this year as China buys more ivory, the park's director said on Friday. Rwandan rebels have killed seven Savannah elephants in the past 10 days alone in the Virunga National Park, along Congo's eastern border with Rwanda and Uganda, Emmanuel de Merode told Reuters

MORA, Minn. -- A Mora woman has paid a $2,500 fine in relation to the October, 2007 shooting of a bald eagle. On Oct. 10, Minnesota DNR officers received a complaint from the Minnesota “Turn in Poachers” hotline that a bald eagle had been killed in Mora. Katherine K. Tramm, 48, paid the fine July 15. After being listed as endangered since 1967, the bald eagle was removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in 2007. "This case is a clear indication that the DNR and the USF&WS are working diligently to protect and preserve our natural...

PORTAGE (AP) - The alleged thrill-killing of as many as 600 animals in Columbia and Marquette counties is the worst case in the nation this year, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Josh Kerl, 21, of Portage, and Adam Stalsberg, 22, of Neshkoro, are accused of using a rifle and spotlight to shoot animals from their vehicle in the past year, and HSUS leaders say they want meaningful fines, permanent revocation of hunting licenses and restitution for the deaths of protected animals. "The amount of animals killed and the wide variety of animals involved in this case...

Here’s a nice dilemma for Lefties. What if UN peacekeepers in the Congo turn out to have been encouraging elephant poaching? Would they continue to give the organisation their unconditional support? Elephant poaching in Africa: sanctioned by the UN? The UN gets away with an extraordinary amount. Because it is thought to embody a lofty ideal, many liberal-minded people are prepared to overlook what it actually does. Never mind that it betrayed the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. Never mind that its officials were illicitly running oil-for-food scams with Saddam. Never mind that it ordered its local commander not to seize...

**Suspecting poaching in a marine reserve, game wardens set up a sting. ** The battleship-gray fishing boat roared past in the dead of night with its running lights off, catching the attention of game wardens patrolling the open ocean just outside Los Angeles Harbor. An onboard inspection turned up hundreds of California spiny lobsters — prized for their sweet flavor and meaty tails — but the skipper's story about where he caught them didn't seem to hold water. The edgy encounter in early January prompted an elaborate undercover operation featuring an array of sophisticated tactics — including divers plunging into...

Lobster defenders are seeing red after two local men were nabbed for allegedly snapping the tails off live crustaceans and tossing the traumatized creatures back into the sea. Anthony T. Gozzo, 52, of Billerica and his partner, Mark E. Turcotte, 20, of Lowell were arraigned in East Boston District Court yesterday on 202 counts of possessing mutilated lobster. “I certainly hope these fishermen are punished to the fullest extent of the law for this sick crime,” said Matt Prescott of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - which isn’t crazy about lobster boiling, either. Environmental police spotted the pair...

The endangered Royal Bengal Tiger is up for sale on the Internet - like any other pet. Several e-portals, which merchandise pets, have put up advertisements for the sale of a variety of endangered wild animals including the big cat. One of them, www.gotpetsonline.com, had on Wednesday inserted two advertisements for the sale of Bengal tigers. In response, a prospective buyer from Helena in Georgia, US, said he was willing to pay $2,000 — a little over Rs 88,000 — for a Bengal tiger cub. All is in spite of the fact that trading in Bengal tiger is prohibited under...

Alleged Illegal Deer Hunting Became A "Contest" Eleven people in Bayfield County accused of turning illegal deer hunting into a contest face dozens of criminal and civil charges. Department of Natural Resources wardens say the males range in age from 16 to their early 20s. They're accused of shining deer, shooting deer and leaving injured or dead deer in the field and hunting outside the season. The D-N-R investigated for seven months. Warden Matt MacKenzie says the shootings began with a small circle of friends and expanded as the group's confidence increased. MacKenzie says there were a lot of bucks...

Chinese elephants are evolving into an increasingly tuskless breed because poaching is changing the gene pool, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Five to 10 percent of Asian elephants in China now had a gene that prevented the development of tusks, up from the usual 2 to 5 percent, the China Daily said, quoting research from Beijing Normal University. "The larger tusks the male elephant has, the more likely it will be shot by poachers," said researcher Zhang Li, an associate professor of zoology. "Therefore, the ones without tusks survive, preserving the tuskless gene in the species." Since only male elephants...

Thy Fearful Cemetery Death decor and catskin fashion in China spurs India's tiger genocide PRAMILA N. PHATARPHEKAR There's only one tiger census in India whose numbers are deadly certain. And increasing. These cold facts are born during wildlife seizures, when dead tigers are counted by their skins, skulls, bones, paws, claws and whiskers. It's a gory toll: over 700 tigers and 2,500 leopards in 1994-2004, as per Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) figures. Last year, over 33 tiger and 114 leopard skins and parts were recovered from wildlife criminals in India. This January, for the first time in Project...

SACRAMENTO - The Department of Social Services said Wednesday it was investigating a home for the elderly after state game officials raided it and removed a flock of maimed Canada geese. The two agencies focused on Lakeside Villa in Loomis, a Sacramento suburb, after a neighbor reported that the owner was poaching geese. Investigators were looking into the possibility that residents of the home were fed meat or eggs from the wild birds that are illegal to possess, state game officials said. "Eating goose is not necessarily a bad thing," said Patrick Foy, a biologist with the state Department of...

Man Fined For Shooting Bald Eagle Officials Report 18 Nesting Pairs In Massachusetts POSTED: 4:38 pm EST February 3, 2005 UPDATED: 8:13 pm EST February 3, 2005 SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- An elderly hunter from Western Massachusetts will pay a substantial fine after shooting a bald eagle. NewsCenter 5's Jack Harper reported that until recently, the bald eagle, the symbol of America, was on the endangered species list. This was the third shooting of a bald eagle in Massachusetts in 20 years. Joseph Donohue, a 79-year-old World War II veteran from Pittsfield, Mass., was fined $5,000 and ordered not to hunt...

A Canadian seafood company helped buy geoduck kingpin Doug Tobin's fishing boat and finance his $1.5 million Puget Sound clam-poaching ring — all in exchange for exclusive rights to resell the stolen shellfish, according to a lawsuit filed by the Washington state Attorney General's Office. A year after Tobin was sentenced to 14 years in prison for making off with nearly 100 tons of shellfish in the region's oddest and most sophisticated wildlife-poaching ring, the Attorney General's Office accused a Richmond, B.C.-based company of fronting him much of the cash to get started. The state is seeking millions of dollars...