Graves County, Kentucky Resident Ordered To Pay $2,500 Fine And Receives Two Year Migratory Birds Hunting Ban

PADUCAH, Ky. – A Graves County, Kentucky, resident was sentenced by United States Magistrate Judge Lanny King, pursuant to a plea agreement, to pay a $2,500 fine, and $35 in special penalty assessments, for baiting and hunting mourning doves, announced United States Attorney David J. Hale. Judge King also sentenced Michael D. Cartwright, age 63, as a condition of probation, to not hunt migratory birds in the United States for a period of two years.

Cartwright pleaded guilty and was sentenced on May 16, 2013, to two counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a Federal wildlife statute which protects migratory birds and regulates the hunting of migratory game birds. Cartwright was charged with placing millet and milo seed, on a field and land adjacent to the field, for the purpose of luring mourning doves and for hunting mourning doves over bait. The investigation by a Kentucky Conservation officer, documented that on August 25, 2012, millet and milo grass seed were present on the Cartwright farm, located in Sedalia, Kentucky, in order to attract migratory game birds. The investigating officer returned on August 29, 2012, and documented that the seed had been disked into the soil, in the field used for the annual dove hunt. Cartwright admitted that he had concealed the bait prior to the dove hunt.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Randy Ream, and it was investigated by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.