NH men plead guilty to poaching bobcats, selling pelts in Canada

Three New Hampshire men pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally hunting wild bobcats and shipping their pelts to Canada, prosecutors announced Friday.

Sherwood Dubrey Jr., 48, and Randy Inman, 49, both entered guilty pleas to conspiring to violate the Lacey Act, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire said in a press release. Sherwood Dubrey Sr., 72, pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act.

“The people of New Hampshire have enacted hunting laws that conserve our resources and define our sense of fair play,” said Erin Creegan, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire. “Baiting and poaching dozens of bobcats for profit disregards that democratic consensus and the duty of sportsmanship shown by New Hampshire’s hunters. Crossing state or international lines will not protect poachers from accountability for their actions.”

Dubrey Jr. and Inman each face up to five years in prison and up to three years of supervised release; Dubrey Sr. faces up to one year each of prison and supervised release. All three men are scheduled to be sentenced in January, prosecutors said.

The Lacey Act, a conservation law enacted in 1900, prohibits wildlife violations that cross state or international borders, according to Creegan’s office. Hunting or trapping bobcats is illegal in New Hampshire, and as such, the state does not have an export program, nor does it distribute pelt tags required under international trade laws.

Dubrey Jr. and Inman illegally poached bobcats in New Hampshire and transported them to New York, which does have a lawful bobcat hunting season and export program. Dubrey Sr. then obtained false tags under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to make it appear as though the bobcats were killed in New York, prosecutors said.

Dubrey Sr. later shipped the bobcat pelts to Canada to be sold at a fur auction, according to Creegan’s office. For more than four years, Dubrey Jr. and Inman routinely used bait piles on their property and on state land to lure the bobcats in before shooting them.

Investigators found text messages and other evidence where the three men discussed the details of their scheme and acknowledged that bobcat poaching is illegal. In one message, Inman admitted to killing a bobcat; in another, Dubrey Jr. told Dubrey Sr. that he did not want bobcat hunting to be legal in New Hampshire because it would create “competition.”

Dubrey Jr. and Inman also used rifles with scopes that could capture photos and videos of their kills, which they later sent to others via text messages, prosecutors said. From 2018 to 2022, the men illegally exported at least 41 poached bobcat pelts.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department led the investigation with the help of local and environmental police, state offices in both the United States and Canada, and the FBI.

“[The defendants’] actions undermined the tagging system that wildlife managers, hunters, and trappers depend on to keep the fur trade legal and sustainable,” said Doug Ault, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement. “Our message is clear — exploiting wildlife for profit has consequences, and we will work with our state partners to bring those responsible to justice.”