So [apparently without caring that the Florida panther is designated "Endangered" and protected by law] he aimed an arrow at the endangered animal and let fly.
"I shot the Florida panther," Benfield, 45, of Naples, admitted in a written statement this week, "because I thought the Florida panther was competing and interfering with my hunting."
As if there aren't TONS of deer available to kill for pleasure. All you have to do is look at the sides of the road in early winter to see all the carcasses that have been hit and killed by cars. TODD BENFIELD GETS PLEASURE FROM KILLING ANIMALS AND WANTED TO KILL THIS ENDANGERED ANIMAL AS WELL.
Benfield came back to the site the next day "with a buddy" and dragged the carcass 50 feet into the woods, trying to hide his crime.
This POS "buddy" of Benfield's should've been charged with facilitating a crime. How is it any different than hiding the body of a human being? This moron knew he killed a federally protected animal and CHOSE to help him hide the crime. Hmm, maybe it was his wife or sons who helped him? If so, they may have said, plead guilty and we won't charge them as well...
The day after that, Benfield removed his tree stand.
The same day, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer found the dead panther in thick vegetation off Woodland Grade near the Ave Maria development in Collier County. The officer determined that the dead panther had been dragged about 50 yards, according to the plea.
Less than a week after he shot the panther, Benfield was interviewed by investigators from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Conservation Commission and lied about having anything to do with the killing, according to Benfield's statement.
Other agencies involved in the investigation were the Collier County Sheriff's Office, the Miami-Dade Crime Laboratory, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory in Ashland, Ore.
But after a three-year investigation into the 2009 death of the panther, Benfield pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Fort Myers.
"I was wrong to have shot and killed a Florida panther," he wrote in his signed apology, included with his plea agreement. "Killing the Florida panther was not a solution and I am sorry for what I did."
Without an eyewitness coming forward in the Benfield case, investigators from a half-dozen agencies faced a lengthy job of piecing together forensic evidence from Benfield's house and vehicle, including collecting DNA evidence from Benfield and from the dead panther, said Andrew Aloise, special agent in charge for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"The message is that no matter how long it takes us, we'll put the resources and the effort into prosecuting and getting the person responsible," Aloise said.
Benfield is only the third person since the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973 to ever be successfully prosecuted for killing the state animal, which has been classified as endangered for 50 years.
According to his plea agreement, he faces 30 days behind bars, three years of probation, a $5,000 fine and a requirement he donate $5,000 to a wildlife-related charity, plus 200 hours of community service. He also cannot hunt in Florida or any other state for three years. He had to forfeit his bow, arrows and tree stand and make a public apology. No sentencing date has been set yet.
An environmental group founded by hunters has called for a stiffer penalty, including lifetime revocation of Benfield's hunting license and a $100,000 fine.
"I'm glad he got what he got and I wish he'd gotten more," Florida Wildlife Federation President Manley Fuller said.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, who led the investigation, did not respond to repeated requests for details on how they caught Benfield. However, his written apology offers some clues.
Why should they tell all the other criminals how they caught this POS Benfield?
On Oct. 8, 2009, he was deer-hunting in a rural area of Golden Gate Estates, a failed development in Collier County, with a Matthews Solocam Switchback XT bow when he shot the panther with a three-bladed Muzzy Broadhead arrow.
Although he moved the body the next day, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission employee discovered the carcass on Oct. 10 — the day Benfield dismantled his tree stand.
On Oct. 12, a federal investigator questioned Benfield about the death of the panther, now officially identified as Uncollared Florida Panther 128.
"During the interview, I lied about having anything to do with the killing of the Florida panther," Benfield wrote. However, state and federal investigators returned with a search warrant for his house and car "where they collected evidence of my crime."
Then, on Nov. 30, 2009, "a federal search warrant was served on my person for my DNA," Benfield wrote. What happened between then and Friday, however, is not mentioned in his statement.
This is not Benfield's first violation of game laws. Collier County court records show he has been fined twice for violating state hunting rules. He has also been previously arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.
Benfield's wife, Tonja, reached at the couple's home, said her husband could not comment on the case, and his attorney, Donald Day, did not return a reporter's phone call.
Panthers, which once roamed the entire Southeast, are now largely confined to the swamps, pastures and forests of Florida's southern tip. Although the population had dwindled to about 30 a few decades ago, about 100 now prowl what's left of the wilderness in South Florida.
Benfield's crime is only the most violent example of a decades-long conflict between the causes of hunting and panther conservation. In his apology, Benfield wrote that one reason he's sorry for what he did is because of "the negative publicity that it may have brought to hunting."
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| In this photo posted Jan. 13 on his wife’s Facebook account, Todd Benfield, 45, poses with a dead deer believing it required talent to use a high-powered weapon to kill an animal that wandered by. |
The first, and most famous, Floridian to ever be charged with killing a panther was James Billie, then chief of the Seminole tribe. Billie shot and skinned a panther in 1983, saying he did it as part of a "religious ritual". He was acquitted by a jury after his attorney raised questions about genetics and whether the panther was really a panther.
Well, what else could it have been? A house cat???
The second man hauled into court was a deer hunter named Elmer Booker who in 1985 said he shot a panther because he "feared it might" climb his tree stand and kill him. Although he pleaded guilty, the POS judge, an avid hunter, refused to put him in jail and instead sentenced him to probation.
Last year, a Georgia deer hunter pleaded guilty to killing a panther that had roamed so far from South Florida that it had crossed the state line in 2008. That deer hunter was sentenced to two years of probation, during which he could not hunt anywhere, and fined $2,000.
If you think he didn't continue killing animals because a judge TOLD HIM NOT TO, I have some real estate in Manhattan I'd like to sell you.
There are at least three other panther deaths since 2009 that remain under investigation.
(Tampa Bay Times - May 18, 2012)
