Three Iowa men claim they couldn’t tell the difference between the Canada geese they could legally take and the trumpeter swans they actually shot, but authorities aren’t buying the excuse. The men are being charged, their guns were seized, and restitution is being demanded in place of the giant waterfowl.
James Conaway, 84, of Fort Madison, Richard Holbert, 70, of Keokuk, and Vinson Davis, 59, also of Keokuk, were hunting in a blind near Fort Madison when three “geese” flew their way. The Department of Natural Resources’ Ben Schlader began receiving complaints almost immediately.
“Within a short period of time of these bird being shot, I received multiple calls from blinds on the Mississippi River in the general vicinity of where this occurred,” Schlader was quoted by Radio Iowa. When he arrived on the scene, three dead swans were reportedly found near the blind.
“The interview process was fairly short. It appears to be a case of misidentification of the swans for geese at this time,” Schlader said.
Schlader was skeptical of the men’s excuse to say the least.
“Trumpeter swans are much bigger even than a giant Canada goose, which is the largest of the species of the Canada goose that we typically see. A trumpeter swan’s wingspan on a big adult bird is right in the neighborhood of six feet from wing tip to wing tip — which is substantially larger than a goose. A trumpeter swan probably weighs 20 to 25 pounds … probably three times the average size of a goose,” Schlader said.
Holbert and Davis both pleaded guilty to one count of taking a protected non-game species, one count of failure to exhibit game to a conservation officer, and one count of abandoning dead wildlife. Holbert was charged with an additional count of wildlife abandonment for a duck left in the blind. Conaway was charged with the first three counts, but pleaded not guilty to them all.
The men were each ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution for the swans. Three shotguns were seized during the investigation, along with an ATV and a boat.
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