Yet another story about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and wildlife has surfaced, this time due to a letter from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund .
This letter referenced a 2012 interview with Kennedy’s 36-year-old daughter, Alexandra “Kick” Kennedy published in Town & Country magazine. In the interview, Kick shared a story about her father hearing about a dead whale that had washed up near Hyannis Port, Mass., when she was 6. According to the magazine, the environmental lawyer has an interest in studying animal skulls in skeletons, the magazine explained.
Kick said her father cut the whale’s head off with a chainsaw and then tied it to the roof of the family’s minivan with a bungee cord for the five-hour drive back home.
“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,” said Kick. “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.”
According to the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, both the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act make it illegal to possess any part of an animal, dead or alive, protected under either law. It also said possession of an illegally scavenged whale skull would be a violation of the law. Furthermore, the letter said that transport of a whale skull across state lines could potentially be a felony violation of the Lacey Act.
“RFK Jr. cutting off the head of a dead whale was both bizarre and illegal, and any serious environmental attorney would know better,” said Brett Hartl, national political director at the fund. “Kennedy may think that his name and privilege mean the rules don’t apply to him, but if he had a shred of integrity left he’d surrender this whale skull and any other illegally collected wildlife parts to the authorities. If he doesn’t, NOAA law enforcement should open an investigation and potentially bring charges against him.”
Earlier this month, Kennedy shared in a video posted to X that he once witnessed a bear get hit while on the way to a hawking (hunting with trained birds of prey) trip in 2014. He then said he put the bear in his van to skin it and put the meat in his refrigerator, which he said is legal in New York state with a tag for roadkill bears. Then, Kennedy’s plans changed and he had to go into New York City, where he decided to drop off the bear in Central Park.
He said some of the people he was with said it would be funny to make it look like the bear had been hit by a cyclist. Kennedy admitted to regretting it the next day when it became a big news story.
The story was also featured in a profile of Kennedy in the New Yorker . It includes a photo of Kennedy with his fingers in the bear’s mouth.
“Maybe that’s where I got my brain worm,” said Kennedy in response to the New Yorker’s questions about the incident.
He was referring to another story from this summer about A 2012 deposition in which Kennedy said doctors told him two years prior that “ a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”
The Center Biological Diversity Fund said: “An investigation is warranted, the letter says, to determine what species of marine mammal Kennedy unlawfully harvested, whether Kennedy continues to possess the whale skull, and what other unlawfully collected wildlife Kennedy has in his possession.”
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