An environmental advocacy group is requesting the federal government investigate whether former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. broke any laws when he transported a whale carcass across state lines—a story his daughter told over a decade ago.
The Center for Biological Diversity Fund, a nonprofit organization who endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, sent a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s office of law enforcement requesting the federal agency look into whether Kennedy broke any laws.
“Under both the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act, it is illegal to possess any part of an animal, dead or alive, that is protected under either statute,” the fund’s director Brett Hartl wrote in the letter, a copy of which was seen by the Daily Beast. “Continued possession of any whale skull represents a significant and ongoing violation of the law.”
The bizarre story began circulating again over the weekend after Page Six spotted Kick hanging out with Ben Affleck—the same week his wife Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce.
The Kennedy scion originally recounted the story in a glossy Town & Country profile from 2012, telling the magazine how her father rushed to Hyannis Port, Massachusetts to secure the whale carcass, before hauling it back to his home in Mount Kisco, New York.
“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet,” Kick told the magazine. “We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us.”
The Fund cited the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which bans possession or killing of marine mammals like dolphins and whales and prohibits the “transport, sell, or offer for sale any such mammal or any marine mammal product made from any such mammal.”
The landmark wildlife bill first signed in 1972 does have carve outs for scientists and researchers, but not for individual collectors.“Vital research opportunities are lost when individuals scavenge a wildlife carcass and interfere with the work of scientists,” the Fund said in its letter. “This is particularly true of marine mammals, which are some of the most difficult wildlife species in the world to study.”
The group also cited the Lacey Act of 1900, which bans interstate trade of illegally obtained animals or animal products.
“Normally, an unverified anecdote would not provide sufficient evidence as the basis for conducting an investigation. However, Mr. Kennedy has admitted that he has recklessly — and with no regard to legal requirements — taken other species of wildlife for his own personal benefit.” The group cited Kennedy’s confession earlier in August of picking up a dead bear cub off the side of the road in Westchester County, only to abandon it in Central Park—sparking a minor controversy at the time.
Kennedy, who suspended his independent presidential campaign last week and endorsed Republican nominee former President Trump, was once a star environmental lawyer with the National Resources Defense Council and other environmental nonprofits. Representatives for the former independent candidate’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
The Center for Biological Diversity Fund published a letter in April accusing Kennedy of being a “dangerous conspiracy theorist and science denier,” which was signed by several other environmental groups. The NRDC’s Action Fund published their own open letter in April, calling on him to drop out.
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