Here's some news on the pathetic sentence Judge Ponsor handed down on Michael Zak, the serial bird killer who owns the Mohawk Trout Hatchery at 467 Amherst Road in Sunderland, Massachusetts. The maximum sentence for this gruesome crime is 3 years in jail, instead Ponsor lets him off with probation, proving once again that wildlife is expendable, even threatened and endangered species, in the eyes of anthropocentric humans.
Zak and Timothy Lloyd, 29, of 115 Park St., Easthampton, shot and tried to hide "more than 250 great blue heron carcasses, as well as the bodies of about 10 ospreys and one bald eagle on the grounds of the Mohawk Trout Hatchery, a business owned by Zak and which lies behind his home."
Soooo, not much in the way of justice served there, huh? Perhaps there's some divine justice in store for Zak? Only time will tell.
The AP story is below. MassLive blog coverage is here.
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Fish farmer sentenced to time in halfway house for gunning birds
Associated Press - July 24, 2007 5:04 PM ET
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - The owner of a Sunderland trout hatchery will spend six months in a halfway house for killing herons, ospreys and a bald eagle.
US District Judge Michael Ponsor also ordered Michael Zak to pay a $65,000 fine and serve five years probation.
Zak pleaded guilty to shooting more than 200 herons and ospreys that were feeding at his fish pools between 2004 and 2007.
But he claimed that he thought the eagle was actually a hawk.
Zak told the judge that shooting the birds was the only way he knew to keep them from eating his fish. But Judge Ponsor said he couldn't understand why Zak just didn't spend the money to put nets over the fish pools to protect them from the birds.
Timothy Lloyd -- who worked for Zak -- also pleaded guilty in the case and was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine and serve two years of probation.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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