NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

MATT J. WHITWORTH

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

AUGUST 31, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RAYMONDVILLE MAN CHARGED WITH ILLEGALLY

USING PESTICIDE TO POISON WILDLIFE

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Matt J. Whitworth, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Raymondville, Mo., man was charged in federal court today with illegally using a pesticide to poison wildlife in Texas County, Mo.

Eric Laney Bryant, 44, of Raymondville, was charged in a three-count federal information filed in the U.S. District Court in Springfield.

Bryant operated a hunting guide service. According to the federal information, Bryant injected the registered restricted-use pesticide Carbofuran (trade name, Furadan) into deer meat and placed the poisoned bait on his property in January 2009 in an effort to kill coyotes. He allegedly maintained the poisoned bait on his property until Feb. 26, 2009, when agents of the Missouri Department of Conservation located three dead domestic dogs, several dead coyotes, a dead gray fox, a dead skunk, a dead red-tailed hawk and three dead American crows – all of which were killed by Carbofuran – on his property.

The use of Carbofuran is restricted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. Bryant was not a certified applicator of Carbofuran, the information alleges, and poisoning wildlife was not a registered or permitted use of Carbofuran.

Bryant is charged with two counts of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act for using Carbofuran for an unlawful purpose and for using Carbofuran when he was not a certified applicator. Bryant is also charged with one count of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in relation to the deaths of the red-tailed hawk and American crows.

Whitworth cautioned that the charges contained in this information are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Mohlhenrich. It was investigated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.

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