{"id":2173327,"date":"2024-02-01T18:00:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2173327"},"modified":"2024-08-27T14:31:57","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T13:31:57","slug":"montana-man-faces-federal-charges-for-killing-thousands-of-eagles-and-trafficking-their-parts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/montana-man-faces-federal-charges-for-killing-thousands-of-eagles-and-trafficking-their-parts\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Man Faces Federal Charges for Killing Thousands of Eagles and Trafficking their Parts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge issued an arrest warrant for a Montana man, Simon Paul, who failed to appear for an initial court appearance on charges of killing thousands of birds, including bald and golden eagles.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment, unsealed last month, reveals that Paul, along with co-defendant Travis John Branson and others, engaged in the illegal killing of approximately 3,600 birds over six years beginning in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The defendants also face charges of trafficking eagle parts on the black market, contributing to an ongoing problem for U.S. wildlife officials.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"UPDATE: Men charged with killing 3,600 birds, selling on black market\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zUpMFB-eUkk\" width=\"6406\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Source: NBC Montana\/YouTube<\/p>\n<p>Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto issued an arrest warrant for Simon Paul, aged 42, from St. Ignatius, Montana, when he failed to appear at his scheduled arraignment in U.S. District Court in Missoula.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Travis John Branson, 48, of Cusick, Washington, pleaded not guilty and was released pending further proceedings. The charges against the two men include a combined 13 counts of unlawful trafficking of bald and golden eagles, along with one count each of conspiracy and violating wildlife trafficking laws.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors revealed that Paul and Branson collaborated with unnamed individuals to hunt and kill the eagles, employing egregious methods such as using a dead deer to lure an eagle before shooting it. Subsequently, they conspired to sell eagle feathers, tails, wings, and other parts on the black market, earning \u201csignificant sums of cash,\u201d according to the indictment.<\/p>\n<p>If convicted, Paul and Branson could face up to five years in federal prison for each conspiracy and wildlife trafficking violation. Trafficking eagles carries a penalty of up to one year in prison for a first offense and two years for subsequent offenses.<\/p>\n<p><i>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onegreenplanet.org\/animals\/montana-man-faces-federal-charges-for-killing-thousands-of-eagles-and-trafficking-their-parts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">article<\/a> by Trinity Sparke was first published by One Green Planet on 10 January 2024. Image Credit: Denisa Mikesova\/Shutterstock.<\/i><\/p>\n<h2>What you can do<\/h2>\n<p>Help to save wildlife by donating as little as $1 &#8211; It only takes a minute.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n<div><script src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/install-popup-button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\" defer><\/script><a class=\"dbox-donation-button\" style=\"background: #ededed; color: #333; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; display: inline-block; font-size: 13px; padding: 8px 10px 8px 10px; -webkit-border-radius: 2px; -moz-border-radius: 2px; border-radius: 4px; box-shadow: 0 1px 0 0 #a5a5a5;\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/focusing-on-wildlife-needs-your-support?amount=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">DONATE NOW<\/a><\/div>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" fifu-lazy=\"1\" fifu-data-sizes=\"auto\" fifu-data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=75&amp;resize=75&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=100&amp;resize=100&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=150&amp;resize=150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=240&amp;resize=240&amp;ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=320&amp;resize=320&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=500&amp;resize=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=640&amp;resize=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=800&amp;resize=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=1024&amp;resize=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=1280&amp;resize=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1&amp;w=1600&amp;resize=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-161632\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/payment-methods_300px.png?ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"28\" title=\"\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n<div><em>Focusing on Wildlife supports <a href=\"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wildlife-charities-supported-by-focusing-on-wildlife\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">approved wildlife conservation organizations,<\/a> which spend at least 80 percent of the money they raise on actual fieldwork, rather than administration and fundraising.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge issued an arrest warrant for a Montana man, Simon Paul, who failed to appear for an initial court appearance on charges of killing thousands of birds, including bald and golden eagles. The indictment, unsealed last month, reveals that Paul, along with co-defendant Travis John Branson and others, engaged in the illegal killing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2201700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onegreenplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/shutterstock-152243408-e1704820429779.jpg?w=750&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"Montana Man Faces Federal Charges for Killing Thousands of Eagles and Trafficking their Parts","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[7777,606,570,3643],"class_list":["post-2173327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-eagle","tag-eagles","tag-golden-eagle","tag-golden-eagles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2173327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2201700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2173327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2173327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2173327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}