Did RFK Jr. chainsaw the head off a dead whale on Cape Cod? His daughter says 'yes'
An environmental advocacy group is calling for government officials to investigate former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after an interview resurfaced where his daughter said he had sawed the head of a dead whale off in Hyannisport around 1994.
His daughter, Kick Kennedy, told Town and Country in 2012 that her father had cut off the whale's head with a chainsaw after he heard it washed up on Squaw Island. He bungee-corded it to the roof of the family minivan to bring back to Mount Kisco, New York apparently to study.
"Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet," Kick Kennedy told Town and Country in 2012. "We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us."
In a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund said it is illegal to possess any part of an animal, dead or alive, that is protected under either the Marine Mammal Protection Act or the Endangered Species Act.
"Furthermore, Mr. Kennedy’s apparent transport of the marine mammal skull from Massachusetts to New York, and therefore across state lines, also represented a felony violation of the Lacey Act, one of the earliest wildlife conservation laws enacted by United States in 1900, which prohibits the transportation of any wildlife, dead or alive, that was reduced to possession in violation of any state, federal, or international regulation or law," wrote Brett Hartl, the national political director for the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, in the letter.
The Arizona-based organization is asking that the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement ensure that Kennedy "surrenders any and all illegally obtained wildlife that he continues to possess, including the whale skull he took from the Massachusetts beach in 1994...and consider all appropriate civil and criminal penalties as well."
A representative for Kennedy or NOAA could not be immediately reached for comment.
On Friday, Aug. 23, Kennedy said he would suspend his campaign for president and threw his support behind former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
The Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, for president and denounced Kennedy's candidacy in April.
"There are good reasons why it is illegal for any person to collect or keep parts of any endangered species. Most importantly, vital research opportunities are lost when individuals scavenge a wildlife carcass and interfere with the work of scientists," Hartl's letter continued. "This is particularly true of marine mammals, which are some of the most difficult wildlife species in the world to study. Indeed, some beaked whales are so difficult to observe that the only way scientists have learned about them is when dead ones wash ashore."
Earlier this month, Kennedy admitted to placing a dead cub in Central Park in 2014 and staging it to look as if a bicyclist had run over the animal, according to USA Today.
Zane Razzaq writes about housing and real estate. Reach her at zrazzaq@capecodonline.com. Follow her on X @zanerazz.
Gain access to premium Cape Cod Times content by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Did RFK Jr. behead dead whale on Cape Cod? Advocacy group wants probe
