Gueydan man sentenced for shooting endangered whooping crane

LAFAYETTE, La. – Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced that a Gueydan man was sentenced last week to 45 days in prison for shooting a whooping crane and ducks.

Lane Thomas Thibodeaux, 21, of Gueydan, La., pleaded guilty and was sentenced Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Carol Whitehurst to one count of taking a migratory bird for which there is no season, one count of taking migratory game birds during closed season, one count of taking migratory game birds from a motor vehicle, one count of wanton waste of migratory game birds, and one count of taking game birds without state hunting license. He was also ordered to pay a $2,500 fine. According to the guilty plea, Thibodeaux shot at a group of birds on November 2, 2014 near a crawfish pond in Vermilion Parish. The shot crippled a whooping crane, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act. Thibodeaux admitted to shooting and killing multiple ducks from the driver’s seat of a moving vehicle on a public road during the closed season on February 14, 2015. Thibodeaux did not retrieve the ducks carcasses from the field, and he did not possess a required Louisiana hunting license.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Forrest Phillips is prosecuting the case.