
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990                   TAG: 9004041298
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLAND                                LENGTH: Short

TAXIDERMIST CHARGED WITH WILDLIFE CRIMES

A West Virginia taxidermist was charged Wednesday with illegally killing deer and selling the mounted heads at a premium price to hunters who entered them in trophy contests, wildlife department officials said.

Virginia game wardens arrested James R. Thompson at a rest area on Interstate 77 in Bland County during an undercover operation. The 42-year-old Huntington resident was charged with one count of buying and selling wildlife and one count of possessing and transporting wildlife, officials said.

A Virginia undercover officer purchased five mounted trophy deer heads, ranging from 10 points to eight points, one 11-point deer rack, three fox squirrel mounts and two mounted wood ducks. After Thompson took $2,200 for the mounts, he was arrested.

Thompson had been under investigation by the special investigative unit of the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources for two years. As Thompson was being apprehended in Virginia, West Virginia officers raided his Huntington residence and taxidermy shop and seized hawks, owls and migratory birds.

- Associated Press

by CNB