PORTLAND, Maine — A Massachusetts man was sentenced in Portland on Wednesday for illegally transporting wild snowshoe hares from Maine to Massachusetts.
U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Jon Rioux, 36, of Attleboro, Massachusetts to one year of probation and imposed a fine of $10,000, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Torresen also ordered Rioux to pay $1,843 in restitution to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the release stated.
According to court records, in January 2021, an investigator with the Maine Warden Service received information that Rioux was soliciting Maine residents to live trap snowshoe hares. Rioux wanted to buy the snowshoe hares to use for beagle training and field trials in Massachusetts, officials said.
Acting undercover, the investigator offered to live trap snowshoe hares in exchange for money. Rioux did not have a license or permit from any jurisdiction that would have allowed him to lawfully possess and transport wild snowshoe hares. When the investigator told Rioux that he did not have a permit to trap the hares and asked him not to tell anyone about their arrangement, Rioux responded, “I won’t say a word.”
Between March 2021 and April 2021, the investigator trapped snowshoe hares on an offshore island in Maine, selling them to Rioux on four separate occasions, according to court documents. On March 16, 2022, Rioux was arrested by Maine Game Wardens and agents with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Kennebunk service plaza on the Maine Turnpike after his final purchase from the undercover investigator.
“Illegally trafficking wildlife across state lines not only exploits public resources it threatens wild populations by creating the potential for disease transmission,” Edward Grace, assistant director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, said in Wednesday's release. “We’re grateful for our close collaboration with state partners in Maine to help us enforce laws that protect wildlife resources on behalf of the American public."
The Maine Warden Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated the case with assistance from the Massachusetts Environmental Police, according to the release.
