Union Co. hunting operation, its manager fined : News : Evansville Courier Press

Gleaner staff

OWENSBORO — A Union County hunting preserve, Game Trails Lodge, and its manager were sentenced and fined Thursday in U.S. District Court in Owensboro for misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act.

The punishment was handed down for the crime of taking wildlife in a manner unlawful under Kentucky law, and for making false statements to Kentucky Fish & Wildlife about the takings and transporting of wildlife in interstate commerce, Acting U.S. Attorney Candace G. Hill of the Western District of Kentucky said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge E. Robert Goebel ordered that Game Trails, a limited liability corporation, pay a $35,000 fine and 43-year-old William Dirk McTavish Jr. of Paducah, the site manager of Game Trails Lodge, pay a $15,000 fine. No jail time was imposed upon McTavish.

The defendants pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced on the same date. The charges arose out of Game Trails’ practice of the killing of does over limit at its lodge at 7616 State Route 365, near Strugis, between June 1, 2006 and November 30, 2007, and shipping parts of the wildlife between Sturgis and Atlanta.

Game Trails and its agents used the Social Security numbers of hunters at the lodge without their permission to report the deer as having been legally taken to Kentucky Fish & Wildlife’s telecheck program. McTavish was the Lodge Manager at Game Trails Lodge at the time, was aware of and participated in the violations.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Randy Ream, and it was investigated by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

via Union Co. hunting operation, its manager fined : News : Evansville Courier Press.