Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig R. Gestring, who handled the
case, stated that in March 2015, the New York State Department of Conservation
received a report of a dead bald eagle in a field on Thompson Road in Addison,
NY. The defendant operated a sheep farm in Addison, adjacent to where the
carcass was discovered.
Subsequent investigation determined that in May 2014,
Wentling mailed a container of Furadan, a restricted-use pesticide known to be
highly toxic to wildlife, from his home in Pennsylvania to his farm in Addison.
In March of 2015, the defendant directed his employees to pour Furadan over
sheep carcasses on his farm for the purpose of controlling predators,
specifically, birds of prey. As a result, two bald eagles, two red-tailed
hawks, and a rough-legged hawk died after ingesting Furadan-laced sheep. One of
the birds was an adult female bald eagle, which was incubating eggs in a nearby
nest at the time of its death. At no time did Wentling have permits to take any
of these birds, alive or dead.
“As a bird, the bald eagle is emblematic of our great
Nation,” said Acting U.S. Kennedy. “With
this prosecution, we reaffirm two of the very attributes which lie at the core
of our Nation’s greatness — our commitment to upholding the rule of law and our
commitment to protecting of the most vulnerable among us.”
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law
Enforcement, protects wildlife through the enforcement of federal conservation
laws,” said Honora Gordon, Special Agent-in-Charge for the Northeast Region.
"The intentional placement of poison on bait carcasses not only poses a
threat to protected wildlife such as eagles and hawks, but also to other
animals and to people. We take these situations very seriously and investigate
these crimes to the fullest extent possible. The result of this case
demonstrates our commitment to investigating wildlife crimes together with our
partners such as the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation,
Division of Law Enforcement.”
“From Staten Island to Lake Champlain to Western New York,
bald eagles are thriving in our state thanks to decades of restoration
efforts,” Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil
Seggos said. “I applaud the work of our Environmental Conservation Officers
(ECOs), the United States Attorney's Office, Western District of New York, and
Special Agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for closing this case with
a successful sentence. This will serve as a reminder that New York must remain
diligent in our efforts to restore this iconic bird and uphold the conservation
laws that protect it.”
In the early 1900’s, New York State was home to more than 70
nesting pairs of bald eagles, and was a wintering ground for several hundred
more. However, by 1960, New York State had only one known active bald eagle
nest remaining. Beginning in 1976, and continuing until 1988, the NYS-DEC Bald
Eagle Program collected 198 nesting bald eagles from other parts of the United
States, brought them to New York State, and then hand-reared them to
independence. Today, there are more than 300 nesting pairs of bald eagles in
the state.
The plea and sentencing are the result of an investigation
by Special Agents of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, under the direction
of Special Agent-in-Charge Honora Gordon and Environmental Conservation
Officers with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation,
under the direction of Captain John Burke.
