UPDATE: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now offering a $7,200.00 reward for anyone with information related to to the shooting of the two Whooping Cranes in Hopkins/Muhlenberg County area.
Anyone with information should call 502-582-5989 ext. 29 or 800-252-5378. The reward is offered for information that leads to an arrest or conviction.
Original Story:
Yesterday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that two adult Whooping Cranes had been illegally shot in Hopkins County last November.
They were a mated pair. According Fish and Wildlife the birds had spent the last two winters in Hopkins County.
Fish and Wildlife spokesman Tom MacKenzie said the agency was waiting for a lab in to confirm that the birds had been shot before reporting the case.
He says the shooting was not by a hunter, but instead a “Thrill kill.”
The killings occurred a couple weeks before Kentucky’s controversial Sandhill Crane hunting season opened.
The penalty for shooting a Whooping Crane can be as much as $100,000 and a year in jail.