Pelicans aren’t something you think of when you picture the state of Idaho. One man was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for disturbing the peace and resisting obstructing officers when he decided to run around a campground holding a pelican.
A group of men were at the Warm Slough campground in Rexburg when a witness called the Madison County Sheriff’s Department to report that three intoxicated males “had caught a pelican and were carrying it around the campground.”
According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, pelicans are federally protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The three men involved were given a warning for harassing the wildlife with two of the men yelling at the officers.
One of the men admitted that they had caught the pelican and according to court documents, the other two continued to scream and “flip off” the officers. One of them allegedly began cursing loudly and “causing a disturbance with the families and kids on the river’s edge.”
Reportedly, one of the men reached for the officer’s vest and was taken to the ground by officers and handcuffed. The man was booked into the Madison County Jail and if convicted, could spend up to six months in prison. That’s what you get for messing with a federally protected bird.