An environmental group is calling for a federal investigation into the alleged 1994 incident in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cut off a dead whale’s head and took it home on the roof of his car, family in tow.
The Washington D.C.-based Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund believes that RFK Jr. committed a felony when he took a chainsaw to a dead whale on the beach of Squaw Island in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and transported the skull across state lines.
The center’s national political director, Brett Hartl, said that based on the Lacey Act of 1900, it is illegal to posses “any part of an animal” protected by the Marine Mammal Protection and Endangered Species acts. He urged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to investigate the incident in a letter Monday.
“There are good reasons why it is illegal for any person to collect or keep parts of any endangered species,” Hartl wrote. “Most importantly, vital research opportunities are lost when individuals scavenge a wildlife carcass and interfere with the work of scientists. This is particularly true of marine mammals, which are some of the most difficult wildlife species in the world to study. Indeed, some beaked whales are so difficult to observe that the only way scientists have learned about them is when dead ones wash ashore.”
The action group, which recently endorsed Kamala Harris for president, denounced Kennedy earlier this year for identifying as an environmentalist while denying climate change.
The story about the former presidential candidate, who is the son of slain Civil Rights icon Robert F. Kennedy, resurfaced from a 2012 Town & Country interview with his daughter Kathleen “Kick” Cavendish.
She said that her father loves studying animal skulls and skeletons, so he strapped the dead whale’s head to the car and spent five hours driving it home, which she described as “just normal day-to-day stuff for us.”
“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,” she 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 whale scavenging story came after RFK Jr. admitted to dumping a dead bear in New York City’s Central Park. He had hoped to the take the roadkill home to eat, but left it too long in the trunk of his car, he explained.
Last week, the independent candidate dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump.
Reps for Kennedy did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Axios first reported this story.
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