Eight southeast Missouri men were charged Tuesday in connection with a conspiracy to illegally hunt deer in the Mark Twain National Forest with the assistance of dogs.
The men allegedly released dogs wearing radio-location transmitters on their collars into the National Forest. When in the vicinity of deer, the radio transmitters frightened the deer and caused them to run from the barking dogs, according to a report issued by Acting United States Attorney Michael W. Reap.
The men tracked the location of the deer by the sound of the barking dogs and by using radio telemetry, which picked up the radio transmissions emanating from the dogs’ collars, the report said.
Another part of the conspiracy, Reap said, involved using Marine-Band radios to evade law-enforcement officers by transmitting the locations of Missouri Department of Conservation agents to each other during the hunt.
Reap said the men were charged with a conspiracy to violate the Federal Lacey Act, which prohibits using dogs to hunt deer. All eight men were charged with illegally hunting deer in a hunt that occurred sometime between Nov. 14, 2008, and Nov. 25, 2008.
All residents of Ripley County, six of the men reside in Doniphan — Henry Hudson, Kevin Turner, Jackie Elliott, Nathan Foulks, Nicholas S. Keck and Frank S. Moman. Also charged was Mitchell G. Pearson, of Fairdealing, and Neil Turner, of Naylor.
If convicted of the charges, each co-defendant faces a maximum penalty of one year in prison and, or, fines up to $100,000.
