Endangered Species: Charged for His Dinner

The Florida panther has inhabited the federal endangered species list since 1967, but James Billie, chief of the Seminole Indian tribe, argues that he was not always aware of the tawny cat’s protected status. In 1983 Billie killed and ate a panther on the Seminole reservation in the Everglades. Though the state charged Billie with destroying an endangered animal, the case languished & in local courts. After lengthy debate, the Justice Department has charged Billie with violating the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Although Native Americans have been convicted of trading in eagles, no court has ever decided whether Indians, whose hunting and fishing treaties with Washington do not mention imperiled animals, are exempt from the act’s provisions.

Billie’s attorney, Bruce Rogow, says the real threat to the panther has been the overdevelopment of South Florida by whites; since 1978 five Florida panthers have been killed by motorists, and others have been shot by white hunters. Naturalists estimate that only a few dozen panthers exist in the Everglades today.