26 turkeys, 2 hawks killed in Kansas, feds say. Now Mississippi hunters face charges
A group of out-of-state hunters are accused of killing more than two dozen wild turkeys from Kansas and Nebraska without a valid hunting license and in excess of the legal kill limit.
Mississippi hunters Kenneth R. Britt Jr., 51, Tony Grant Smith, 26, Barney Leon Bairfield III, 28, and Dustin Corey Treadway, 27, were indicted on charges of illegally transporting the turkeys across state lines, lying to law enforcement officers and violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, federal prosecutors said in a news release Thursday.
Colonel Steve Adcock of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks called it “thievery and abuse of our valuable natural resources.”
Britt, Smith, Bairfield and Treadway traveled to Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska during spring hunting trips in 2017 and 2018 before returning to Mississippi, according to prosecutors and a criminal indictment unsealed in Mississippi federal court Thursday.
None of them had the required hunting licenses, prosecutors said.
But that didn’t stop them from bagging 26 wild turkeys over eight days in 2018, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said the men then brought home “parts” of the birds — including “trophy spurs and beards,” which are the talons on the back of a turkey’s leg and a patch of bristles that hang from its breast, according to BowHunting 360.
Kansas law limits two wild turkey kills per hunter per season, prosecutors said in the news release.
In 2019, the indictment alleges Smith killed two red-shouldered hawks, which are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The act was signed into law in 1918 to protect the populations of migratory bird species and makes it illegal to kill, capture, sell, trade or transport migratory birds such as geese, herons, buzzards and falcons, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Red-shouldered hawks are not endangered and have stable populations in most regions but are considered to be “far less numerous than historically in some areas, including the upper Midwest and parts of the Atlantic Coast,” according to Audubon Guide to North American Birds.
Britt, Smith, Bairfield and Treadway were arraigned before a federal judge Thursday and given a $10,000 bond each, court filings show.
Their trial date has been set for Nov. 2, prosecutors said in the news release. Britt faces up to seven years in prison and a $450,000 fine if he’s found guilty on all counts. Smith faces up to two and a half years with a $215,000 fine, Bairfield faces three years and a $300,000 fine, and Treadway faces one year and a $100,000 fine.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
