Two men charged with killing eagle in western Kansas

Federal prosecutors have charged two Kansas men with killing a golden eagle found dead on a Wallace County ranch in December.

Michael Dusin, of Phillipsburg, and Elijah K. Kuhlman, of Sharon Springs, are accused of violating the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said in a news release Friday.

The men, both 22, face up to a year in federal prison and a maximum fine of $100,000 if convicted.

Court documents allege Dusin and Kuhlman were driving and hunting in western Kansas when they saw what they describe as a large, black bird flying across a field on Dec. 11. When the bird started heading toward their truck, Kuhlman backed up and Dusin shot it with a shotgun. They left immediately after it fell to the ground.

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Natural Resource Officer Mike Hopper found the dead eagle in a field the next day and two spent shotgun shells on a road nearby. Authorities tracked down the men after someone reported seeing a Ford F-150 that Kuhlman was known to drive in the area around the time the eagle would have been shot.

A post-death X-ray of the eagle revealed 41 metal pellets in the bird, including some in a wing and spinal column.

Asked by a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service why they shot the eagle, Dusin said “they just wanted to shoot something,” court records show.

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act bars anyone without a permit from pursuing, shooting at, poisoning, wounding, killing, capturing, trapping, collecting, molesting or disturbing the protected birds or their parts, nests or eggs. It was enacted in 1940, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s website.

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 1:14 PM with the headline "Two men charged with killing eagle in western Kansas."