Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces call for investigation over whale head incident

An environmental advocacy group known as for former impartial presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be investigated concerning a resurfaced report through which his daughter, Kick Kennedy, mentioned he lower the pinnacle off a lifeless whale. 

The Heart for Organic Range Motion Fund issued a letter Monday, telling the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that it’s “unlawful to own any a part of an animal, lifeless or alive,” beneath each the Marine Mammal Safety Act and Endangered Species Act, and that the federal government company ought to open an investigation.

Kennedy’s daughter Kick in 2012 instructed City & Nation journal that her father, an environmental lawyer, lower off a whale’s head round 1994 after the mammal washed up on the shore in Hyannis Port, Mass.

The Hill has reached out to Kennedy’s marketing campaign spokesperson for a touch upon the story.

The story from City & Nation started to recirculate once more this week, days after Kennedy ended his presidential marketing campaign and endorsed former President Trump. The Heart for Organic Range Motion Fund pointed to the letter in its submission to NOAA.

Within the City & Nation article from 2012, Kick mentioned that her father bungee-corded the animal to the highest of his automotive and drove it throughout the state line to Mount Kisco, N.Y.

“Each time we accelerated on the freeway, whale juice would pour into the home windows of the automotive, and it was the rankest factor on the planet,” Kick mentioned within the City & Nation piece, initially printed in 2012. “All of us had plastic luggage over our heads with mouth holes lower out, and folks on the freeway had been giving us the finger, however that was simply regular day-to-day stuff for us.”

The environmental group known as on Kennedy to give up “any and all illegally obtained wildlife that he continues to own,” together with the whale cranium. 

“There are good the explanation why it’s unlawful for any individual to gather or hold components of any endangered species,” the group mentioned in a letter. “Most significantly, important analysis alternatives are misplaced when people scavenge a wildlife carcass and intrude with the work of scientists. That is notably true of marine mammals, that are among the most tough wildlife species on the planet to check.” 

That is the second weird animal story involving Kennedy to emerge this month.

Earlier in August, he mentioned that he dumped a lifeless bear cub in New York Metropolis’s Central Park a decade in the past. 

Kennedy, who initially kicked off his 2024 White Home run as a Democrat, left the get together in October to run as an impartial, gaining some traction in nationwide polls. Lately, his ballot numbers dropped into the low single digits. He suspended his marketing campaign final week and introduced his endorsement of former President Trump.