Matthew Kent Larson

By Jeff Simpson

Matty Larson thought he would have some fun one day when he saw a crane, ran and borrowed his neighbors shot gun and took that crane down!

A two-year-old female was shot on July 21, 2013, in central Wisconsin. Federal forensics specialists confirmed that the crane had been shot and killed with a .22-caliber bullet.

Matthew Kent Larsen, 28, of New London, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to the crime in a federal court in Green Bay and was sentenced to pay $2,000 in fines: $1,500 in restitution to the International Crane Foundation and a $500 Migratory Bird Treaty Act fine. His hunting and fishing rights were also revoked for two years.

In a statement to law enforcement officers, Larsen said he was on his family property in rural Waupaca County when he saw what he believed to be an albino Sandhill Crane standing in a wheat field on the neighboring property. Larsen said he left the property, borrowed a .22-250-caliber scoped rifle from a friend, and returned a short time later and shot the crane.

 Mr. Larson was so thrilled he had to text his friends of his accomplishments!

 After the shooting, Larsen said he texted a friend to tell him he had just shot an albino Sandhill Crane.

 His friend told him that the Crane was a protected species, so the big tough guy with the gun did what you would expect him to do.  He turned tail and ran!

  When the friend told Larsen that he had killed an endangered Whooping Crane, Larson left the area. Larsen said he would not have shot the bird had he known it was a Whooping Crane.

Of course that is all well and good except:

 “Regardless of whether Larsen thought he was shooting a Sandhill Crane or a Whooping Crane, they are both federally protected and neither can be legally hunted in Wisconsin,” said Pat Lund, an FWS law enforcement agent and supervisor for Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri. “Incidents like this undermine the work of a huge network of conservationists who have worked for decades to bring Whooping Cranes back from the brink of extinction.”

While the endangered crane is lost forever, Mr. Larson recieved a small slap on the wrist:

 Matthew Kent Larsen, 28, of New London, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to the crime in a federal court in Green Bay and was sentenced to pay $2,000 in fines: $1,500 in restitution to the International Crane Foundation and a $500 Migratory Bird Treaty Act fine. His hunting and fishing rights were also revoked for two years.