The Justice Department issued the following statement.
Two Louisiana men pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, announced U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee, Acting Special Agent in Charge Stephanie Johnson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Colonel Jerry Carter of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.
Brandon Scott Favre, 49, of Baton Rouge, pled guilty on November 8, 2023; and Jason Martin, 50, of Hackberry, pled guilty on January 19, 2024. Both defendants pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of conspiring to transport a live white-tailed deer from the state of Louisiana to the state of Mississippi in violation of state and federal laws.
Favre was sentenced to a 4-year term of supervised probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. He was also ordered to implement a four-year Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) sampling and testing plan on an 850-acre enclosure and ordered to pay $59,808.19 in restitution for the costs of the CWD sampling and testing plan that will be conducted by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP). As part of this plan, 40 white-tailed deer will be harvested each of the four years by the MDWFP for CWD testing.
Martin is scheduled to be sentenced on April 3, 2024, and faces a maximum penalty of 1 year imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. A federal magistrate judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
According to court documents and statements made in open court, from October 2020, through June 2021, Favre and Martin entered into an agreement to transport and receive from Louisiana into Mississippi a live white-tailed deer. In April 2021, Martin transported the deer as agreed upon and delivered to Mistletoe Properties, a permitted 850-acre high-fence enclosure for white-tailed deer operated by Favre, located in Adams County, Mississippi. Once delivered, the deer was put into an unpermitted breeding pen located on the property. The deer was transported from Louisiana without documentation, in violation of Louisiana law, and transported into Mississippi, in violation of Mississippi law, and all in violation of federal law.
Federal law makes it unlawful to transport live white-tailed deer from one state to another without proper documentation and without required animal health records. These records include certifying that captive-bred animals are free from diseases such as chronic wasting disease. The Mississippi Board of Animal Health has declared that white-tailed deer are considered chronic wasting disease susceptible animals and are not allowed entry into Mississippi. The State of Louisiana requires any person who keeps, breeds, raises, contains, harvests, buys, sells, trades, or transfers ownership of any type of farm-raised alternative livestock for commercial purposes shall obtain a farm-raising license prior to engaging in such activity. Additionally, the State of Louisiana requires any person with a farm-raising license to maintain records, for not less than 60 months, of all sales, trades, or transfers of any farm-raised alternative livestock. White-tailed deer are considered farm-raised alternative livestock. Chronic wasting disease is the chief threat to wild deer and elk populations in North America. The disease, which ultimately ends in the death of infected animals, is a transmissible neurological disease that produces small lesions in the brain of deer and elk and is characterized by loss of body condition and behavioral abnormalities.
USFWS Acting SAC Stephanie Johnson stated: "This prosecution is an excellent example of what we can accomplish through the collaboration that occurs every day between the USFWS and our enforcement partners. The MDWFP and USFWS share a vested interest in combating the spread of diseases which threaten our native wildlife populations and are potentially spread through the interstate transport of deer in violation of state and federal laws."
MDWFP Colonel Jerry Carter stated: “The MDWFP takes the interstate transport and unlawful importation of White-tailed deer into the State of Mississippi seriously. We will continue to work collaborative criminal investigations with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service & the U.S. Attorney’s Office to detect and prosecute those who choose to violate the laws of this state.”
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks – Investigations Unit, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Office of Law Enforcement investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bert Carraway is prosecuting the case.
31 comments:
Got caught doing something others do frequently.
I know that CWD is a problem and this is against the law, but this much of a penalty for ONE DEER? There must have been a lot more and he just pled to one.
These participation trophy mama's boys are ruining hunting just like everything else they get involved with. If you dropped them in the middle of the wilderness with a weapon and ammo and basic camping equipment they would starve to death due to the lack of hunting skills.
high fence enclosures are the ultimate in chicken shit deer hunting.......thats why there are so many of them in mississippi.
as my friends on the coast say
when you meet a Farve ,you're trying to figure out if they are an asshole or crazy ...
Government overreach. It is probably a regulation they violated. Hopefully SCOTUS will overturn the "Chevron deference" and stop this crap, especially with the ATF.
The high fences are not for hunting. All Farves refer to these fences as volleyball nets
Who makes sure that all the deer crossing the state line on their own every day have licenses?
Coonasses with an 850 acre high fence operation in Mississippi is total BS. High fence operations in MS are BS to begin with, but the MDWFP czar Bill DeViney is the one to place the blame on for that. He pushed for them and finally got his way. He sees it as big business. Also, if we have a CWD "outbreak", the state can swoop in and buy up land cheap, see Eagle Lake Rd as an example.
10:40 - Do you realize that ONE DEER infected with CWD is all it would take to start an epidemic? Sheesh.
This is the pen the "possible state record" whitetail escaped from, and was killed a couple of months ago.
How many innocent deer have been imprisoned just because they couldn't read the "welcome" and "leaving" signs at the state borders?
Since I'm no NFL fan, I really don't care one way or the other about the Favre family. However if his last name was Smith or Jones, this would not be a story.
Hunting deer in an enclosure is like hunting deer with dogs; it’s not really hunting, but simply harvesting. About as much sport as walking into a pasture and shooting a cow in the head.
"Who makes sure that all the deer crossing the state line on their own every day have licenses?"
I say if they can swim across the Mississippi we should leave them alone ;-)
CWD is a new choke point of control and pool of federal money for the MDWFP. There are more deer that perish annually crossing state roadways than die here from CWD. We have been told for years that CWD will eventually arrive and decimate the deer population. It has not happened yet, and what practices they initially said would spread the disease are now legal in the state. As far as the disease crossing over to humans it has not been proven conclusively. Hot grease will subdue whatever it touches, thats the most effective way to solve the problem.
My old neighbor Billy Powell of New Summerfield, Texas paid the largest fine levied in U.S. history for similar activities. $1.5M as I recall,,,,and all his healthy deer were destroyed and all his mounts taken from his lodge and destroyed.
Am I the only one who hasn’t seen a white tail deer walking across a Mississippi River bridge?
Wish the government was as worked up about people illegally entering as it is about deer
"These participation trophy mama's boys are ruining hunting just like everything else they get involved with. If you dropped them in the middle of the wilderness with a weapon and ammo and basic camping equipment they would starve to death due to the lack of hunting skills."
This is so true. It should be called harvesting, not hunting. Shooting a baited deer takes almost the same skill as playing the video game Deer Hunter. Hunting is not what it used to be.
How much money did the various fed/state alphabet soup orgs spend on this stupid deer? Seriously?? Our tax dollars at "work" keeping us safe from Louisiana deer! Thank God!!
1:41- Better read up on prions.
3:36 - No cases of CWS have been reported in humans.
1:41 there are recent studies out, saying the threat to humans is much larger than was previously thought. Like CJD (“Mad Cow Disease”), it was originally thought that it couldn’t be passed to humans either……but it can. Like Mad Cow, CWD is a prion disease, so it wouldn’t be killed off by the hot grease of which you speak.
Believe me when I say, a prion infection of the brain is not something you would want.
There are no cases.
Reminds me of the most recent prior governor shooting clip-winged quail up at the quail farm in Winston County...and whisked back and forth by MHP at 85 mph.
Man, this hunting thing is exhausting and takes some balls and skills.
The same ex. governor who got himself a hugely-large hunting preserve named for himself over in Warren...on the heels of flooding and CWS, of course. Said land bought and paid for with tax dollars.
Hunting deer in an enclosure is like hunting deer with dogs; it’s not really hunting, but simply harvesting. About as much sport as walking into a pasture and shooting a cow in the head.
January 26, 2024 at 12:58 PM
You Sir are obviously not a Dog Hunter, or a Hunter at all. If you are you must be one those that kills his deer from a heated hotel room on stilts, overlooking a pile of Corn...
Hunting over a pile of corn or listening as nine stolen beagles surround a frightened deer - Not much difference, other than the heater up in the stilted room.
I knew Dan'l and, you sir, ain't no Mingo.
Hunting doesn’t seem to exist anymore. It never seemed like “hunting” to me to bait a strip of land and lay in wait for the animal to happen by, thus becoming the prey.
Upstanding citizens, that entire Favre clan.
7:50, I (12:58) actually hunt in the woods on a folding tripod chair I carry in over my shoulder. I’m unprotected from the elements and the eyes of all critters, forcing me to be very still so I see the deer before it sees me. I don’t really care if I shoot one or not, just getting them close without detecting me is a good hunt.
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