Idaho game guides indicted for illegal mountain lion hunts

A federal grand jury in Pocatello indicted three big game guides who allegedly guided illegal hunts, resulting in the kills of at least 11 mountain lions in Idaho, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

Chad Michael Kulow, 44, of Kuna, is charged with one count of conspiracy and 11 counts of Lacey Act violations, all felonies. Andrea May Major, 44, also of Kuna, is charged with one count of conspiracy and six Lacey Act violations, all felonies. LaVoy Linton Eborn, 47, of Paris, Idaho, faces one count of conspiracy and seven Lacey Act violations, all felonies. 

The three defendants entered not guilty pleas Sept. 30 in federal court. 

The Lacey Act is a conservation law prohibiting trade in wildlife, fish and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold. The alleged Lacey Act violations are punishable by up to five years in federal prison, a maximum fine of $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release. 

The charges stem from 2021, when Kulow, Major and Eborn were licensed guides in the state of Idaho, employed by a licensed outfitter, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

In late 2021, the trio allegedly began illegally acting in the capacity of outfitters by independently booking mountain hunting clients, accepting direct payment and guiding hunts in southeast Idaho and Wyoming, outside the federally permitted outfitting service for which they worked. 

Between December 2021 and February 2022, the three big game guides allegedly unlawfully sold hunts and carried out guiding activities on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in southeast Idaho and the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming. 

The illegally guided hunts resulted in the kills of at least 11 mountain lions in Idaho, according to federal prosecutors, as well as a Boone and Crokett record mountain lion in western Wyoming. 

Several big game mortality reports were falsely submitted to Idaho Fish and Game with inaccurate outfitter business information, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, and at least three mountain lions were shipped directly to Texas, without having been presented to Idaho Fish and Game for completion of the required big game mortality reports. 

Mountain lions killed during the hunts were transported from national forest land to or from Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Texas and North Carolina, which prosecutors said violated the Lacey Act and multiple Idaho laws. 

A jury trial in the case is scheduled for Nov. 18 in Pocatello.