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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hunting Guide ‘One Of The Worst Poachers Ever’ Montana Man Pleads Guilty To Eight Federal Wildlife Law Violations

Associated Press

A Montana hunting guide who wildlife agents say was one of the worst poachers they’ve ever seen has pleaded guilty to eight federal wildlife law violations.

In a plea agreement Friday, Jay Scott Nye, 39, pleaded guilty to violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, for possessing a walrus tusk and an eagle skull. He kept the skull in a bag made from the scrotum of an illegally killed bighorn sheep.

He also pleaded guilty to six counts of violating the ban on interstate transport of illegally obtained wildlife parts.

Nye faces up to eight years in prison and an $800,000 fine when he is sentenced in U.S. District Court later.

“This is a big case, and it’s a weird one,” said Doug Zimmer, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Olympia.

Veteran wildlife agents called Nye “one of the worst poachers they’ve ever seen. The sheer volume, and the number of animals involved, is amazing.”

Nye worked off and on as a hunting guide in Noxon, Mont., which is where all of the illegally killed animals appear to have come from, Zimmer said. He also spent time in western Washington, making a living as an iron worker and living in Buckley, Carbonado and Enumclaw over the last year.

“His pattern was to commit the violations in western Montana and carry the evidence back to Washington,” said Capt. Ron Swatfigure of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Other items confiscated by agents were the skulls of bighorn rams, cougar and bear hides, the skin of a wolverine and the tail feathers of several red-tail hawks.

One investigator said Nye assembled the skins and skulls into a “wildlife morgue” and displayed them to friends.

“His wilderness skills are superb, but in my mind, he’s not a sportsman. He’s a poacher,” Zimmer said.

Agents seized photographs of Nye standing with a rifle next to some of the animals. He claims to have found the animals dead.

Nye’s lawyer, Anthony Savage, said his client denied killing all but one of the animals. Savage said Nye killed the wolverine because it was caught in a trap in Montana.

Savage called Nye an “outdoors guy,” who liked collecting animal hides and parts.

State and federal agents in Montana and Washington worked together on the investigation, which started last April with a tip from an informant.