Federal and state law enforcement authorities are crediting concerned citizens with the conviction in federal court Tuesday of a 31 year-old Milwaukee man who purposefully drove his car through a flock of ring necked gulls in order to kill or injure the birds.
Ronnie S. Jones, Jr., also known as Robert L. Baber, of Milwaukee, pleaded guilty to violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act before U.S. Magistrate Judge William Callahan, Jr., in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee. Callahan sentenced Jones to time served in jail of 49 days, and placed Jones on supervised release for one year.
Jones admitted that, on July 29, 2004, he intentionally drove his car through a flock of ring-billed gulls in the parking lot of the Northgate Plaza shopping center on W. Brown Deer Road. Ten gulls were killed or injured. One gull was rehabilitated by the Wisconsin Humane Society and released back to the wild.
The incident was investigated by special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Conservation Wardens. “We’re very grateful to the people who witnessed this crime and were concerned enough to call in and report it,” said Service Special Agent Ed Spoon “Without public support we simply cannot do our jobs.”
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects all migratory birds, including shore birds such as gulls, songbirds, hawks, owls, eagles, and ducks and geese. The penalty for killing protected migratory birds includes a fine of up to $15,000 and imprisonment of up to six months.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 Fish and Wildlife Management offices and 81 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 Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
