Environmental group calls for RFK Jr. to be investigated over dead whale story

WASHINGTON - An environmental advocacy group is calling for former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be investigated after a 2012 interview resurfaced in which his daughter said he used a chainsaw to cut off a dead whale’s head.

In the interview, published by Town & Country Magazine, his daughter claimed Kennedy bungee-corded the whale’s head “to the roof of the family minivan for the five-hour haul back to Mount Kisco, New York.” She said that the whale had washed up on Squaw Island in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and that the incident occurred when she was 6.

“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 said.

The Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund sent a letter Monday to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claiming that it is illegal to possess “any part of an animal, dead or alive" under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, according to the letter obtained by USA TODAY.

“There are good reasons why it is illegal for any person to collect or keep parts of any endangered species,” the group wrote in the letter.

“Most importantly, vital research opportunities are lost when individuals scavenge a wildlife carcass and interfere with the work of scientists. 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,” the group said.

The group called for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials to have Kennedy surrender "any and all illegally obtained wildlife that he continues to possess."

"Given Mr. Kennedy’s reckless disregard for the two most important marine conservation laws in the United States, we ask that NOAA consider all appropriate civil and criminal penalties as well," they said.

USA TODAY reached out to Kennedy's spokesperson for comment.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Environmental group calls for RFK Jr. probe over dead whale story