CHICAGO, Illinois, March 4, 2003 (ENS)
The owner of an exotic meat market in suburban Chicago faces five years imprisonment and up to $250,000 in fines after pleading guilty Friday in federal court in Chicago to a felony violation of the Lacey Act, a federal wildlife protection law.
Richard Czimer, president and operator of Czimer's Game and Seafoods, Inc. in Lockport, pleaded guilty to purchasing the meat of a federally protected black spotted leopard (Panthera pardus) in August 1997. Czimer entered his plea before Judge Blanche Manning at the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
Czimer admitted that between August 1997 and October 31, 1998, he also purchased the carcasses of 16 federally protected tigers, four lions, two mountain lions and one liger (a tiger-lion hybrid). The animals were then skinned, butchered and sold as "lion meat" at Czimer's Meat and Seafood, realizing a profit of more than $38,000. Czimer said he purchased the carcasses from co-defendants William Kapp of Tinley Park, Illinois, Steven Galecki of Crete, Illinois, and Kevin Ramsey formerly of Oak Forest, Illinois, and now living in Wisconsin Czimer is scheduled to be sentenced June 27, 2003. As part of his guilty plea,
Czimer has agreed to pay $116,000 in restitution to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Save the Tiger Fund.
Czimer was among seven men indicted in Chicago in May 2002 on numerous wildlife protection and trafficking charges. A total of 17 individuals and one business in eight states were charged as a result of a lengthy investigation by special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service into the trafficking of exotic animals. Service investigators, working closely with U.S. Attorney's Offices in Illinois, Missouri and Michigan uncovered a group of residents and small business owners in the Midwest that allegedly bought and killed exotic tigers, leopards, snow leopards, lions, mountain lions, cougars, mixed breed cats and black bears with the intention of introducing meat and skins into the lucrative animal parts trade.
Tigers are listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The law also protects leopards, which are classified as either endangered or threatened depending on the location of the wild population. Although federal regulations allow possession of tigers bred in captivity, the regulations stipulate activities involving their use must be to enhance the propagation or survival of the species.
It is unlawful to kill the animals for sport or profit, or to sell their hides, parts or meats into interstate commerce.