Judge slaps Mississippi hunters with worldwide hunting ban, $48K fines for illegal interstate hunting

Published 5:39 pm Thursday, February 25, 2021

Four men from Mississippi have been banned from hunting anywhere in the world and fined a total of $48,000 for violating wildlife laws in Kansas.

Kenneth R. Britt Jr., 51; Tony Grant Smith, 26; Barney Leon Bairfield III, 28; and Dustin Corey Treadway, 28, were also sentenced by U.S. District Judge David Bramlette to several years of probation, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Wednesday.

They pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill wild turkeys in excess of the legal limit and illegally transporting the birds across state lines, prosecutors said in a news release.

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The men are from two neighboring towns — Wesson and Brookhaven — in Mississippi.

In 2017 and 2018, they traveled to Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska for spring hunting trip without the required hunting licenses, prosecutors said

During one eight-day trip in 2018, the men bagged at least 26 wild turkeys. Kansas limits hunters to two wild turkey kills per hunter per season.