Bald eagles targeted in a six-year ‘killing spree’ by these US men

An arrest warrant has been issued for an American man accused of killing thousands of birds, including bald and golden eagles.

A federal judge ordered his arrest on Monday, after the man from Montana failed to show up for an initial court appearance, where a second defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The two men, working with others, killed about 3,600 birds on Montana’s Flathead Indian Reservation and elsewhere over a six-year period beginning in 2015, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed last month.

It is thought that they killed the eagles to sell their body parts on the black market – a long-running problem for US wildlife officials.

Who are the men accused of killing thousands of eagles?

Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto issued a warrant for Simon Paul, 42, of St. Ignatius, Montana, after he failed to appear at his scheduled arraignment in US District Court in Missoula.

Travis John Branson, 48, of Cusick, Washington, pleaded not guilty and was released pending further proceedings in the case.

The two defendants are charged with a combined 13 counts of unlawful trafficking of bald and golden eagles and one count each of conspiracy and violating wildlife trafficking laws.

Paul and Branson worked with others who were not named in the indictment to hunt and kill the birds, and in at least one instance used a dead deer to lure an eagle that was then shot, according to prosecutors.

Text messages obtained by investigators showed Branson and others telling buyers he was “on a killing spree” to collect more eagle tail feathers for future sales, according to the indictment that described Paul as a “shooter” for Branson.

The men then conspired to sell eagle feathers, tails, wings and other parts for “significant sums of cash,” the indictment added.

US takes eagle crime seriously

They face up to five years in federal prison on each of the conspiracy and wildlife trafficking violations. Trafficking eagles carries a penalty of up to one year in prison for a first offense and two years in prison for each subsequent offense.

Bald eagles are the national symbol of the United States, and both bald and golden eagles are widely considered sacred by American Indians.

US law prohibits anyone without a permit from killing, wounding or disturbing eagles or taking any parts such as nests or eggs.

Bald eagles were killed off across most of the US over the last century, due in large part to the pesticide DDT, but later flourished under federal protections and came off the federal endangered species list in 2007.

Golden eagle populations are less secure, and researchers say illegal shootings, energy development, lead poisoning and other problems have pushed the species to the brink of decline.

“We just hope that if these individuals are proven guilty that it will serve as a warning to others that we are watching,” Rich Janssen, director of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Natural Resources Department.

Branson could not be reached for comment and his court-appointed attorney, federal defender Michael Donahoe, did not immediately respond to a message left at his office. Paul could not be reached for comment.