Man punished for using wildlife traps on federal land

A Carter County man with a record of wildlife violations was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to three months in prison for setting leg hold traps to catch a bobcat and acquiring, possessing and transporting a bobcat off forest service land.

The two sentences will run concurrently. Judge Lewis M. Blanton also assessed a $2,500 fine and a $20 assessment fee for each count, to be paid immediately, against John H. Partney, 55, of Van Buren, Mo.

With his previous guilty plea, Partney admitted that on Feb. 7, a Missouri Conservation agent found an illegal snare and leg hold trap on privately owned land in Carter County.

Agents installed video surveillance equipment at the site. On Feb. 17, the agents retrieved a video tape from the equipment that showed Partney removing a coyote from the snare and resetting the snare. The video documented other times that Partney attended the site.

On Feb. 19, Partney was contacted at this trap site by agents, who searched his truck with his consent. An agent found a freshly-killed bobcat in the back of the truck. Agents also seized a camera from a backpack in the back of the truck. When the camera film was developed, it showed a bobcat caught in a leg hold trap at a different site.

Partney agreed to an interview with the officers, and told them of two other trap sites that he was tending. Partney admitted setting the traps at a location the agents designated as "Trap Site 3." Partney also admitted that Trap Site 3 was where he caught the bobcat that agents discovered in his truck. Partney killed the bobcat with an air rifle and took it to the truck on Feb. 19.

A U.S. Forest Service surveyor determined that Trap Site 3 was located on federal property which the government has owned since 1939.

Partney told the officers he acquired the leg hold traps from a company in Iowa. Officers contacted the company and learned that Partney bought the traps on Jan. 15. The traps had been modified so that the teeth had been welded to the jaws of the traps.

Partney has previously been convicted in federal court of two counts of conspiracy to transport wildlife in violation of state law, two counts of transporting wildlife in violation of state law; and three felonies: Selling firearms to unauthorized persons, aiding and abetting the destruction or removal of property to prevent seizure and destruction or removal of property to prevent seizure.

His fishing, trapping and hunting privileges were revoked by the state of Missouri for life.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160