3 men plead guilty to killing 41 bobcats in NH, exporting them to Canada
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
Three men pleaded guilty to killing more than 40 bobcats over four years in order to export them to Canada.
Sherwood Dubrey, Jr., 48, and Randy Inman, 49, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Lacey Act.
Sherwood Dubrey Sr., 72, pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act.
The Lacey Act is a law that prohibits wildlife violations crossing state or international borders.
According to court documents, for four years, Dubrey Jr. and Inman exported at least 41 bobcats that were illegally taken in New Hampshire, illegally tagged in New York, and fraudulently exported to Canada for sale as putatively legal wildlife.
Dubrey Sr. got the false tags to make the bobcats appear to have been killed in New York.
Court documents showed that the bobcats were illegally killed in New Hampshire, tagged in New York, and transported to Wisconsin to then be transported to a fur auction in Canada.
The auction value of the wildlife was $3,000.
Court paperwork said that text messages showed that Dubrey Jr. and Inman used bait piles on their property and on state land to lure bobcats to be shot.
In one message, Dubrey Jr. told his father he did not want a legal bobcat hunting season in New Hampshire because it would create competition.
Court documents said Dubrey Jr. and Inman used rifles with scopes that took videos and photos of their illegal kills.
“Bobcats, like all New Hampshire wildlife, are held in the public trust. These poachers stole from every Granite Stater,” James Morse, president of the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation, wrote in a statement.
Court paperwork said Dubrey Jr. and Inman will have to pay the state $500 for every illegally killed bobcat. That’s at least $20,500.
The three men are set to be sentenced in January 2027.