WEST BAY — Authorities have cited a local fishing guide for allegedly tying the beaks of pelicans shut after the birds interfered with his crew’s catches, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Larry Francis Lemieux Jr., 37, was cited by FWC officers during a fishing outing on March 1 after they said they saw him wrapping the beaks of two pelicans with fishing line before releasing the birds. FWC also reported finding one dead pelican on the shore with similar fishing line tied around its beak, officers wrote.
Lemieux was charged with misdemeanor cruelty to animals and taking a species of special concern, namely brown pelicans, according to court records.
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Lemieux, a captain with Damage Inc. Fishing Charters, denied the charges and said they were “totally absurd.”
“I’ve never hurt a pelican in my life,” Lemieux said Tuesday. “I’m not in the business of harming animals. I’m an environmentalist.”
However, two FWC officers on patrol said they witnessed Lemieux tie the beaks of two pelicans for interfering with his customers fishing before saying “got to keep the trash population down,” the officers reported.
On March 1 at about 9:30 a.m., undercover officers were patrolling areas of Warren Bayou, also called Steam Plant Canal, when two pelicans flew into the fishers’ lines at the same time. Lemieux then allegedly took one pelican to the back of the boat, wrapped fishing line around its beak and pulled the line until it broke. He then let the pelican go before returning to his customers for the other pelican, FWC officers reported.
We “looked at each other, not believing what we had just seen,” the officer wrote. “Lemieux then took the other pelican to the same spot in his vessel, grabbed the bill the same way, wrapped it up 3-4 times again, stretched the line out, cut the line by biting it, then tied a knot around the bill of that pelican. That pelican also flew away.”
FWC then got video and pictures of the pelicans flying around with fishing line wrapped around their beaks and waited at the mouth of the canal to approach Lemieux, they said.
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While there, they also saw a dead pelican on the shore with similar fishing line around its beak.
Lemieux denied the FWC officers’ allegations, stating he was not using the same fishing line they documented on the pelicans’ beaks. He has a court date scheduled for March 18 to be arraigned on the charges.
“I’ll be fighting this thing tooth and nail,” he said. “I can’t have this thing around my neck.”