Wolf poacher gets a legal pass on doing the time

[chatnoir]

http://crosscut.com/2012/05/22/animals-wildlife/108683/wolf-poaching-in-the-northwest/

headline:

Wolf poacher gets a legal pass on doing the time
The story of a convicted wolf killer brings a growing problem into
perspective, and shows how big an impact even one or two deaths can
have on an endangered population.


Four years ago, when some Washingtonians were celebrating and others
decrying the upper-Methow Valley appearance of the Lookout wolf pack,
the state's first breeding pack in 70 years, Tom White was out there
in the Methow killing wolves.

Blood seeping from a wrapped FedEx package in Omak was the tell-tale
clue. Three days before Christmas, a FedEx driver refused to pick up a
package at Anchor Printing, a separate business in the Omak Walmart,
because he had seen the blood. The owner called the cops. A police
officer discovered what seemed to be the pelt of a freshly killed
wolf. The package had been on its way to Alberta. The pelt's original
owner had been a member of a federally protected endangered species.
The feds got into the act. White, his wife and father were quickly
identified.

A photograph found on one of the White's computer showed Tom White
with the dead body of a second wolf. It turned out that in May and
December, White had killed wolves near Twisp. He ultimately admitted
killing the wolves. His wife, Erin White pled guilty to shipping the
pelt under a false name. His father, William White, pled guilty to
conspiracy to both kill and ship a federally-protected species. He
also has pled guilty to illegally importing wildlife — he had poached
a moose in Alberta — and hunting bears with dogs. Formal sentencing
won't take place until July 11, but a plea agreement with the U.S.
Attorney for Eastern Washington has presumably earned William White a
$38,500 fine and a felon's lifetime ban on gun ownership. Under their
own plea agreements, Tom and Erin White face fines of $38,000 and
$5,000. No one will go to jail.

By most people's standards, fines totaling roughly $81,000 add up to a
pretty stiff penalty, but Conservation Northwest — which has been
working for years to restore wolves in Washington and has joined
forces with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to expand
an enforcement reward fund that offers up to $7,500 for information
that leads to the conviction of anyone who has killed a gray wolf (The
fund also pays up to $5,000 if the poaching victim is a grizzly bear,
wolverine, lynx or fisher.) — thinks that the lack of jail time sends
the wrong message .... (cont)