Former seasonal employee sentenced for poaching in Smokies

NPS Digest is reporting this morning that a former Great Smoky Mountains National Park seasonal employee has been sentenced in federal court in Kentucky for taking a deer and a bear in the park while working there in 2009.

Jason Taylor, 25, pled guilty in April to three counts of violating the Lacey Act by unlawfully transporting taken wildlife – specifically, a black bear skin and an eight-point set of antlers – from the park to his home in Edmonson County, Kentucky. He admitted that he’d shot the animals while working in the park. Taylor also aided and abetted the fraudulent use of a social security number to obtain a “confirmation number” from the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources for the deer he killed in the park.

Following a plea agreement, he was ordered to pay $3,000 in fines and restitution and was banned from hunting or accompanying anyone while hunting anywhere in the world for two years. The case was investigated by the National Park Service, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com