Guides Facing Federal Charges for Illegal Hunting and Transport of Mountain Lions in Idaho and Wyoming.

It’s sounding a lot like prison time and fines that could reach upwards of $250,000 for a trio of guides that allegedly ran an illegal hunting scheme that resulted in the death of over a dozen mountain lions. 

Federal prosecutors returned a thirteen-count indictment on August 27, 2024, charging Chad Michael Kulow, 44, and Andrea May Major, 44, both of Kuna, Idaho, along with LaVoy Linton Eborn, 47, of Paris, Idaho, with conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and additional Lacey Act violations. 

According to the release, the indictment alleges that in late 2021, Kulow, Major, and Eborn were licensed guides in the State of Idaho, employed by a licensed outfitter.  During late 2021, Kulow, Major, and Eborn conspired together to commit Lacey Act violations, when they began illegally acting in the capacity of outfitters, by independently booking mountain lion hunting clients, accepting direct payment, and guiding hunts in southeast Idaho and Wyoming, outside of the licensed and federally permitted outfitting service for which they worked.  

Between December 2021 and February 2022, the defendants unlawfully sold hunts and carried out guiding activities on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in southeast Idaho and the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming.  The illegally guided hunts resulted in the kills of at least eleven mountain lions in Idaho, and a Boone and Crockett record mountain lion in western Wyoming.  

Several Big Game Mortality Reports were falsely submitted to Idaho Fish and Game with inaccurate outfitter business information, and at least three mountain lions were shipped directly to Texas, without having been presented to Idaho Fish and Game for completion of the required Big Game Mortality Reports.  Mountain lions killed during the hunts were transported from National Forest land, to or from Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Texas, and North Carolina, in violation of the federal Lacey Act and multiple Idaho state laws.

Kulow and Major were arrested on September 24, 2024 with Eborn following suit a day later. Each of the accused had their initial court appearances shortly after their arrests and later appeared before the U.S. Magistrate Judge Debora K. Grasham and entered not guilty pleas. 

The three defendants are facing Lacey Act violations which are punishable by up to five years in federal prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release. They are set to be in front of a jury in late November.