Related Federal Cases
Local Man Sentenced for Wolf Poisoning
BUTTE – Jeffrey Scott Wood, a 49-year-old man from Reed Point, has been sentenced for unlawfully using strychnine to poison a wolf on a ranch near Ennis, U.S. Attorney Leif M. Johnson said.
Wood pleaded guilty to an information charging him with unlawful use of a registered pesticide, a misdemeanor. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine and to pay $1,000 restitution to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto presided over the case. Johnson expressed his disappointment in Wood’s actions, stating that misusing strychnine to kill predators results in the indiscriminate killing of animals, both large and small, wild and domestic.
The investigation revealed that in October 2019, Wood unlawfully used a registered pesticide, strychnine, in a manner inconsistent with its labeling to poison a wolf on the Sun Ranch. An investigation into the death of the wolf determined that the wolf had ingested strychnine oats rolled in meat, which appeared to have been placed beside a previously dead cow.
A ranch employee had shot the cow because it was sick, not due to poisoning. A necropsy of the wolf found grains containing strychnine in its stomach and intestines and that the grains were the likely cause of death. A ranch employee’s dog was also suspected of dying from ingesting the strychnine.
Wood initially denied any involvement in the wolf’s death, but later admitted that he placed the poison to kill wolves, not grizzly bears as he initially claimed. He acknowledged that using the poison was wrong and that he was aware he could not put strychnine oats in meat.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan G. Weldon prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency-Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-Office of Law Enforcement and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks law enforcement.
Johnson emphasized that his office will continue to prosecute this kind of unlawful and irresponsible use of registered pesticides to the fullest extent of federal law.
Key Facts
- State: Montana
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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