A federal court in St. Louis, Mo., today sentenced Stoney Ray Elam, the former operator of a Ft. Gibson, Oklahoma, exotic animal farm, to one year confinement, two years probation and ordered him to pay $5,000 restitution to the Fish and Wildlife Foundations Save the Tiger Fund for illegally selling two federally-protected tigers and three leopards in 1998.
Elam, former owner of PowerHouse Wildlife Sanctuary in Ft. Gibson, will serve six months of his one-year sentence in an Oklahoma detention facility and six months in home confinement. Elam pleaded guilty in April to two felony violations of the Lacey Act, a federal wildlife protection law. Each felony violation of the Lacey Act carries a maximum penalty of five years confinement and fines of up to $250,000.
In June 1998, special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service observed Elam transport two tigers and three leopards (one black leopard and two spotted leopards) from Oklahoma to Missouri. Elam then met with an undercover federal agent posing as an exotic animal dealer near a highway rest stop in New Florence, Mo. Elam sold the cats to the agent for $4,800, then falsified federal documents declaring the illegal sale to be a "donation."
Elam was one of five people indicted in Missouri last November as a result of Operation Snow Plow, a lengthy multi-state investigation into the illegal exotic animal trade by special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Service investigators, working closely with U.S. Attorneys Offices in Missouri, Illinois and Michigan, uncovered a group of residents and small business owners in the Midwest that allegedly bought and killed exotic tigers, leopards, snow leopards, lions, mountain lions, cougars, mixed breed cats and black bears with the intention of introducing meat and skins into the lucrative animal parts trade.
Elam is the fourth defendant charged by the Missouri Federal Court to be sentenced. Todd H. Lantz, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., was sentenced in Cape Girardeau in August to five months in prison, three years supervised probation, and ordered to pay $5,000 to the Fish and Wildlife Foundations Save the Tiger Fund after pleading guilty to conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, a felony. His wife Vicki L. Lantz was sentenced to six months home detention, five years probation after pleading guilty to aiding in the illegal sale of the four tigers, a misdemeanor violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Freddy M. Wilmoth of Gentry, Ark. was sentenced May 20, in Cape Girardeau, Mo., to six months home confinement, three years probation and ordered to pay $10,000 to the Fish and Wildlife Foundations Save the Tiger Fund after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting the illegal transportation of endangered tigers into commerce, a misdemeanor violation of the Endangered Species Act. Wilmoth was also sentenced to serve two weekends in jail and pay a $25 special assessment.
Defendant Timothy Dale Rivers, owner of Animals in Motion Animal Park in Citra, Florida, pleaded guilty in St. Louis in August to illegally selling two federally protected black leopards (panthera pardus) a misdemeanor violation of the Lacey Act. River is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 20 in St. Louis.
Tigers are listed as "Endangered" under the federal Endangered Species Act. The law also protects leopards, which are classified as either "endangered" or "threatened" depending on the location of the wild population. Although federal regulations allow possession of captive-bred tigers, the regulations stipulate activities involving their use must be to enhance the propagation or survival of the species. It is unlawful to kill the animals for profit, or to sell their hides, parts or meats into interstate commerce.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95 million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses nearly 540 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 70 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
For further information about programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, visit our website at http://midwest.fws.gov
