A Georgia man who admitted trying to ship deer to his Villa Rica ranch from Pennsylvania without testing them for disease was fined $20,000 and sentenced to six months’ probation Wednesday, federal authorities said.
Donald Lee Vaughn pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits the unlawful interstate trafficking of wildlife. He was ordered to pay his fine directly to the Lacey Act Reward Account through the U.S. Department of the Interior.
“Shipping wildlife across state lines without testing for illness and disease potentially threatens the health of our wild deer population,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a news release.
On or about March 20, 2009, Vaughn, 48, paid $6,000 for five white-tailed deer from a dealer in Pennsylvania and then tried to bring in an additional six white-tailed deer bought from the same dealer, authorities said.
A Yadkin County, N.C., sheriff’s deputy stopped the shipment and contacted the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The commission determined Vaughn had not obtained transport permits of veterinary health certificates accompanying the animals.
Federal law requires that any deer shipped out of state to be tested for tuberculosis and accompanied by proper ear tags and a veterinarian’s certificate, prosecutors said. Most states also prohibit introducing deer that are not from a herd certified as free from Chronic Wasting Disease.
The case was investigated by agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service working with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and prosecuted by Shennie Patel of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary C. Roemer.
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