Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumPrep school teens were accused of massacring protected birds. Did they get off too easy?
By Brittany Lyte July 5 at 8:00 AM
A Laysan albatross and chick at the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. (Courtesy of Lindsay Young)
KAPAA, Hawaii The first of the bodies was discovered by a hiker who snapped a photo of the suspicious scene with his cellphone. Buried in a nest on the westernmost spit of the Hawaiian island of Oahu was a dead bird the size of a human child. On the ground next to it was a large stick.
State conservation officers would later determine that more than a dozen birds had been bloodied and dismembered with a bat, a machete and a pellet gun. Nearby, several smashed eggs were scattered about the craggy, lava rock coast.
That gruesome sight in December 2015 soon became a crime scene, one that eventually implicated six students and recent graduates of a prestigious Honolulu prep school whose alumni include former president Barack Obama. While on a camping trip the night before the hikers arrival, authorities alleged, the boys and young men had hiked to the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve and mercilessly slaughtered at least 15 Laysan albatrosses, federally protected birds that have been the focus of a 26-year-long conservation effort. Nearly a dozen of their eggs were crushed; six other eggs failed to hatch due to the death of a parent.
The night of destruction set conservation efforts back nearly a decade and caused more than $200,000 in damage, state and federal investigators say. It has also fueled outrage among wildlife advocates and nature lovers in Hawaii, who contend that the students who were accused of severing the birds feet to collect their I.D. bands as souvenirs and posting photos of the mutilated birds on social media have not received punishments proportionate to such a shocking, callous crime.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/07/05/prep-school-teens-were-accused-of-massacring-protected-birds-did-they-get-off-too-easy/?utm_term=.466c37082377
exboyfil
(17,862 posts)But with pictures on the Internet i wonder if prosecutors couldn't have gotten a better deal.
The thing stinks to high heaven. Did one just fall on his sword? Why weren't the others charged? I thought they were using the deal to go after the other adults until I read it again.
The juveniles are tough. We even let mass murdering juveniles out sometime (see Jonesboro elementary shootings).
This reminds of when we had two young adults (one a Marine) slaughter a large number of ducks and other water fowl at a petting zoo I regularly took my daughters too.
edit to remove incorrect reading (no one else was charged).
https://jonathanturley.org/2010/09/24/fowl-crime-marine-pleads-guilty-to-killing-50-ducks-at-petting-zoo/
Smalling is stationed at Twentynine Palms California. He pleaded guilty to livestock abuse, a misdemeanor. He will only have to pay a fine of $625 without any jail time.
Previously, Zachary Kanellis, 20, of Cedar Rapids, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal mischief and injury to livestock, both misdemeanors.
mercuryblues
(14,526 posts)Part of their school curriculum was to learn about the birds and the efforts to save the. They thought it would be fun to torture and kill them.
Hell yes they are getting off easy. Part of their punishment should include a thorough Psych evaluation.
Not Ruth
(3,613 posts)Duppers
(28,117 posts)It should be mandatory one yr sentence + a $50K fine for each of them.
This is sickening. Why is respect and compassion absent in so many youths? Can these traits be taught or learned at this age?
Are their parents are Republicans? Odds are yes.
hunter
(38,309 posts)Sadly, this sort of psychopathy is celebrated in some political circles.
It's not a stretch to imagine the Trump brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric, doing something like this in their prep school days.
emmadoggy
(2,142 posts)mackdaddy
(1,522 posts)If they did 200 thousand dollars of damage, then sue them in civil court for triple the damages.
That might get even well to do families attention.