Repeat offender shoots 29 geese from highway — and loses hunting privileges, feds say
.jpg "A flock of Canada geese soar through the afternoon sky, Friday, Jan. 20, 2006, in Washington. A 22-year-old from Louisiana was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine for hunting violations involving migratory birds, officials said. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)")
A group of hunters fled in 2021 after a U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer caught them shooting down geese from a state highway in Louisiana on Mardi Gras, federal prosecutors said.
Now a 22-year-old who officials say was among the party can no longer hunt.
Trevor Istre, of Jennings, Louisiana, was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine for hunting violations involving migratory birds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana said in a news release on Feb. 11. Istre’s hunting and fishing privileges were also suspended for three years.
Jennings is midway between Lake Charles and Lafayette in Southern Louisiana.
“Our Federal Wildlife officers and canines take Migratory Bird enforcement seriously in the Mississippi Flyway. Restricting hunting and fishing privileges has proven to be the most effective deterrent for the protection of wild game species and public lands in Sportsman’s Paradise,” Steven Strader said in the release
Strader is the patrol captain for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of Refuge Law Enforcement in Louisiana.
Istre, who represented himself in court, could not be reached for comment by McClatchy News.
Federal court documents show Istre was hit in October with five citations for taking migratory birds with the aid of a motor vehicle, taking migratory birds during a closed season and taking migratory birds in violation of state law.
His trial was slated to begin Feb. 10, but prosecutors said he pleaded guilty to the wildlife violations that day instead.
The charges against Istre are tied to an investigation that began on Feb. 16, 2021. According to the government, a K9 wildlife officer found Istre’s hunting party shooting geese from Highway 99 in the Jefferson Davis parish, which includes Jennings. They took off when the officer arrived, but investigators collected spent shotgun shell casings and an injured goose from the property.
Prosecutors said a total of 29 geese were ultimately seized during the investigation.
It was not immediately clear how U.S. Fish and Wildlife investigators identified the suspects, but four of them reportedly had a history of federal and state wildlife violations.
Istre was charged in November and December 2019 with state and federal wildlife violations at the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, according to the release. The government said he has paid more than $3,900 in fines across multiple jurisdictions related to hunting violations since becoming an adult.
Three other hunters who reportedly helped shoot the geese on Mardi Gras were also ordered to pay a total of $2,470 in fines.
