Florida man pleads guilty to sale of protected leopards

Timothy D. Rivers, owner of Animals in Motion Animal Park in Citra, Fla., pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in St. Louis to illegally selling two federally protected black leopards. The sale was a misdemeanor violation of the Lacey Act, a federal wildlife protection law.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rivers admitted that in August 1998 he sold two black leopards to a buyer in Illinois through a Cape Girardeau animal dealer, Todd Lantz, for $750 each.

Lantz and his wife, Vicki, have already pleaded guilty to multiple violations and will be sentenced later this fall. The couple operated the Capetown Safari animal auction on County Road 618 and owned Lazy L Exotics.

Rivers was among five people indicted in St. Louis last November following a lengthy undercover operation by special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agents uncovered a black-market ring that allegedly bought and killed exotic animals with the intention of selling the meat, skins and other parts into the lucrative animal parts trade.

Rivers also admitted to falsifying documents to indicate the sale was a donation. Rivers said he was also involved in the illegal sale of an endangered Bengal tiger to the Lantzes on Oct. 27, 1998.

The tiger was transported from Florida to Lantz's 5-H Ranch in Missouri, and then on to Illinois, where it was killed four days later, said special agent Tim Santel.

Rivers is set to be sentenced Nov. 20 in Cape Girardeau. He faces a maximum penalty of one year in prison and up to one year of probation.